Mental health can be a crushing, debilitating problem which can affect even the most successful or experienced.

Leyton Orient director of football Martin Ling knows only too well, having suffered crippling bouts of depression in the past, forcing him to leave his last managerial post with Swindon Town back in 2015.

Since then, the 51-year-old has spoken candidly about his own battles with mental health in the media as a patron for the charity MIND, and he has even taken time out of his busy schedule to help those suffering from similar problems to give them advice.

“I do an awful lot of coffee drinking,” Ling explains.

“But when I say coffee drinking, an awful lot of people come to me and say I’m struggling a little bit or a brother or sister is struggling a little bit so would you have a chat with them? Those chats not only helps them, but it helps me as well, because the first thing I did when I wasn’t very well was that I isolated myself and hid away. It helps me to talk very openly about it and it helps me to talk to people who are suffering as well. But you can give them the point that it does get better.

“My advice is don’t suffer in silence and if you feel anyone you know or feel that anyone you know is suffering, ask them to go out for a coffee with you.”

Some, therefore, may have raised eyebrows when he was announced as the O’s new director of football shortly after Nigel Travis’ takeover last summer, given Orient’s sorry situation which had seen them end up in the High Court under former owner Francesco Becchetti. With just nine players on the O’s books when he first entered his office, it’s fair to say the 51-year-old had his work cut out.

At the time, it was a new role for Ling, who oversees the day-to-day running of the club as well as player recruitment, but one year on, it is a positon he thoroughly enjoys and that has had a positive effect on his own mental health as well.

He said: “When you asked the question about how I have enjoyed the job, the first checklist in my head is have I been well and happy and any way shape or form concerned about my mental health? The answer to that is no. It’s been really good for a couple of years now. I have had mental health issues twice but I feel I’m in as good a place in my life as I have ever been and I feel great.”

This weekend, Ling will field a team of London Legends to take on Errol McKellar’s celebrity XI in a charity match which will take place at Brisbane Road to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK and the mental health charity MIND.

The match, set up by McKellar who volunteers within Leyton Orient’s academy, will see a number of former O’s take part including Dean Cox, Charlie Daniels, Scott Fitzgerald and Gary Alexander as well as current head coach Justin Edinburgh.

McKellar and Ling have been close friends for 22 years and Orient’s director of football is looking forward to the game at Brisbane Road on Sunday.

Ling said: “Errol spoke to me a while back and said he wanted to do something for Prostate Cancer. But he also said to me would I be interested in doing something for MIND because we think they cross. People who suffer from a physical illness struggle with their mental illness, so we felt it crossed over quite well. As you say, MIND was very good for me when I was struggling with my own mental health. It’s nice to put something back. I am patron of East Herts MIND and it’s something I’m really looking forward to.

“I’ve known Errol since 1996 and he’s always been a close friend. When I was manager, we would talk all the time. He is selfless in what he did for our youth players and I think he is selfless in what he does for his charity. He’s a big character, but he’s got a heart of gold and he’s been a close friend for 22 years now and he’s always got a smile on his face.”