A YOUNG actress who starred alongside Mel Gibson in Braveheart has opened up for the first time about her battle with depression.

Glasgow-born Mhairi Calvey was just six when she won the role of young Murron in the Oscar-winning epic.

Raised by a single mother on the Isle of Arran, she turned down the chance to be a child star.

But she was bitten by the acting bug and after leaving school, opted to study drama at Guildford School of Acting, whose famous alumni include Bill Nighy and Michael Ball.

Now the 26-year-old has landed her big break in science fiction thriller Abduct, directed by visual effects expert Ilyas Kaduji of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia fame.

But it has not come easy to the young actress who has struggled with bouts of debilitating depression.

She said: "I've suffered it on and off since I was young, and last year it came to play a lot in my life. A long-term relationship ended, I lost my flat through that, and I had no money. I also went through an operation.

"I was in London at the time and I had no support network around me. I was struggling to get up in the morning. I stopped taking care of myself. I thought I wasn't worth anything.

"It was only through almost losing everything that I found someone who could help me. But it was luck that I stumbled across a good therapist at that time."

She said: "I went to doctors and I didn't get any help through that. It was waiting lists, especially if you're in a big city."

The actress hopes to set up her own charity which will help people with depression and tackle the stigma often associated with the illness.

She explained: "I think depression affects more people than many realise. I think people that have it don't want to talk about it because people don't know how to respond."

"That's why we should raise awareness that it's okay to have it and that it's curable. You can actually overcome it. It doesn't take that long to recover if you get the right help.

"I've started a Facebook page called Think Differently Do Differently that has tips about how to manage depression and how to find a support team.

"I'm going to put up a range of different things and I just hope it grows. I would love to make it into a national or inter-national charity.

"There's a lot of stigma. That needs to change."

Mhairi is now based in York near her jewellery designer mother, Dominique Calvey, who ran a gallery on Arran for many years.

Her father and brother still live "just outside Glasgow, in the countryside" and she remains firm friends with people she grew up with in Arran and Glasgow.

The actress is now looking to the future and the upcoming release of Abduct, which also stars William B Davis of X-Files fame, and Sienna Gullory of Resident Evil and Eragon.

But she'll never forget her time on the set of Braveheart.

Mhairi said: "It was a perfect start. I remember it really clearly, chatting to Brian Cox when we were filming and working with Mel Gibson who directed me on the set. You learn a lot from people like that.

"After Braveheart I was invited on to the Hollywood child scene, but my mum wasn't a pushy parent so she decided I could go down that road when I was older.

"It's worked out well. My life has started falling back into place, and things are going great. I've turned everything around in a year."