Former North Queensland Cowboy Ray Thompson shared his tips on ‘bouncing back from adversity’

The former NRL star was impressed by the community’s enthusiasm for the messages he had to share.

Collinsville State School, Scottville State School, St John Bosco Catholic School, and Collinsville State High School students enjoyed meeting former North Queensland Cowboys player Ray Thompson when he came to town. Picture: Supplied.

The community of Collinsville has enjoyed an inspiring visit from a former NRL star, all in the name of resilience-building.

Former North Queensland Cowboy Ray Thompson visited four Collinsville schools and hosted a community evening session last week, sharing evidence-based mental health strategies emphasising the power of gratitude, empathy and mindfulness.

It was all thanks to a collaboration between the Cowboys, the Collinsville Community Association, and Australian schools program called The Resilience Project, which aims to empower teachers with curriculum-based program resources, activities and knowledge to help inspire and educate their students.

Mr Thompson said he was happy to use his profile to promote positive wellbeing and help young people, as well as their teachers and carers, “bounce back from adversity”.

“As a rugby player, our failures, our adversity, is often on show – it’s the headline on many articles,” he said.

“So, I see it as a good thing to be able to normalise failure and relate it back to strategies and understanding what we can do to be the most positive people we can be.”

Collinsville State School, Scottville State School, St John Bosco Catholic School, and Collinsville State High School students enjoyed meeting former North Queensland Cowboys player Ray Thompson when he came to town last week. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Thompson said Collinsville stood out among the other north and far north Queensland school districts he had introduced to the resilience project, as it was the only community in which every single school had signed up straight away.

He planned to come back next year for more school visits, as well as a bigger and better whole-community event.

“The beauty of mindfulness strategies is they’re very easy to learn, they’re things anybody can implement, and if students learn them at a young age – they’ve got them for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Heather Brown, from the Collinsville Community Association, said resilient young people have better coping skills and “are more likely to make positive life choices that can directly impact their outcomes in life”.

“We want our region’s young people to succeed and are happy we can provide such a powerful program to help set them up for success,” she said.

Former NRL player Ray Thompson, far left, shared his tips for positive wellbeing with the Collinsville community at an information evening last week. Picture: Supplied.