A group of students tackling mental health issues in schools are hoping to expand their project to reach more young people.

The TalkEasy trust was formed in November 2012 by a group of sixth form pupils at John Fisher School.

They set up the group to provide support to students who are suffering from depression, are the victims of bullying or have other mental health issues.

Founder of the trust, Aidan McNulty, 17, was inspired to set up the group from his own experiences with mental health. It has since gone from strength to strength.

He said the group currently has 20 students across Croydon and Sutton who are involved in mentoring and supporting other pupils.

Students undergo a brief training programme before mentoring their peers. There are also trained counsellors on hand if the situation requires more experience.

The trust currently operates in five schools in Croydon and Sutton but Mr McNulty said after some successful fundraising, the group are ready to go into more schools.

Your Local Guardian:

Croydon MP Gavin Barwell, who supports the trust, with Aidan McNulty

As well as helping individuals, the group are also going into schools to give talks. They will also encourage students to join the trust as mentors.

Aidan McNulty said the trust was getting a positive response from all the schools they have worked with so far.

He said: "Currently we are working with students mainly in the 11 to 18 bracket but we would like to start going into primary schools as well.

"We are going into more schools now and showing them the website and showing pupils how they can get in touch with us.

"We have Facebook and Twitter accounts as well which are used to communicate with students if they want to get in touch with us that way. It is always student to student and it is always confidential which is important."

Politicians have also got behind the scheme. Tom Brake, Carshalton & Wallington MP is a patron of the trust and Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell, who has campaigned for various mental health issues, is also supporting the group.

Mr Barwell, who met with some of the group on Friday, said he would love to see the project spread across more schools in Croydon.