Nottingham Evening Post reporter Joanna Kowalski has beaten her national rivals to be named Journalist of the Year by the mental health charity Mind.

Joanna is only the second regional journalist to win the prestigious title for her series: “A Lifetime of Mental Health” which ran for six days in the Post last October.

She was the unanimous winner of the award, given for outstanding reporting of mental health issues in the local, national and consumer press, as part of Mind Week 2005.

The judges, Simon Garfield (Observer), Sophie Goodchild (Independent) and Sarah Boseley (Guardian), all previous prize winners, said they were very impressed with Joanna’s “unusual commitment to mental health” resulting in a thoroughly engrossing, well-informed and inclusive series.

They praised her clever idea of studying mental health at all ages, addressing issues including children’s mental wellbeing, work-induced stress and dementia, and “successfully illustrating how mental health can affect anyone”.

Joanna, 27, said: “I was very surprised to have beaten off such excellent competition from the other nominated journalists.

“This award is really a tribute to the people who had the courage to talk to me about their mental health issues in a bid to raise awareness and reach a wider audience.

“Their honesty and candour went some way to removing some of the stigma that surrounds people with mental health issues.

“About one in four people have mental health problems at some point in their lives, so if you don’t experience them yourself, someone you know probably will.”

The award, in its 11th year, was presented yesterday at a ceremony hosted by Lord Melvyn Bragg, Mind’s president, at Glazier’s Hall on London’s South Bank.

Joanna fought off competition from several national newspaper journalists to win the accolade. The shortlist for the award included Madeleine Bunting and Nick Johnstone, who both work for The Guardian, Daily Mirror writer Ros Wynne-Jones, and Paul Groves, of the Birmingham Post.

Wednesday’s ceremony also included the presentation of the Mind Book of the Year and the Mind Champion of the Year awards.

Mind Week, which runs until Saturday (May 21) has seen the launch of a major new report by Mind entitled “Stress and Mental Health in the Workplace”.