History

SANE was established in 1986 to improve the quality of life for people affected by mental illness, following the overwhelming public response to a series of articles published in The Times entitled The Forgotten Illness.

Written by the charity’s founder and Chief Executive, Marjorie Wallace CBE, the articles exposed the neglect of people suffering from mental illness and the poverty of services and information for individuals and families.

As a result of the scale of the public response to The Forgotten Illness articles, Marjorie founded SANE.

To download PDF versions of The Forgotten Illness articles click on the links below.

The Forgotten Illness 1 (PDF, 11MB)
The Forgotten Illness 2 (PDF, 3MB)
The Forgotten Illness 3 (PDF, 2MB)

Read the articles in full on Issuu at issuu.com/home/published/forgottenillness

Focus

The charity initially focused on the most severe mental illnesses, but it later expanded its remit to all mental health.

Following the launch of the charity, Marjorie recruited support for SANE from key figures in medicine, science, business, industry and the media, including Prince Charles as its first patron.

In 1992, Marjorie founded SANEline, the UK’s first national specialist out-of-hours mental health helpline, offering information and emotional support to individuals, families, carers, professionals, and the public.

Research

In 1994, she also raised over £6 million to build a new research centre, The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research, with donations from Xylas family, Prince Turki Al Faizal and The Sultan of Brunei.

The centre promotes and hosts multi-disciplinary teams researching and investigating the causes of psychosis. It was opened by Prince Charles in 2003.

Over more than 35 years, mental health policy and provision have come a long way.

But at SANE we are all too aware of the many thousands of individuals and families who struggle quietly and desperately without the help they need.

SANE campaigns to influence mental health policy and improve services, as well as combating the stigma and ignorance which all too often exacerbate the distress that people experience.

HRH Prince Charles and SANE Founder and Chief Executive, Marjorie Wallace CBE, at the opening of POWIC in 2003