Professional athlete·Speaker·Mental health advocate
Through his lived experience in elite sport and mental health, Kofi Josephs helps people speak more openly, see what is possible for themselves and take the next step towards change.
Great Britain Senior Men’s international
England Commonwealth Games athlete
Speaking experience and reach
Speaking engagements across education, sport, healthcare, workplaces and communities.
People reached through Kofi’s talks, workshops and sessions over the years.
National campaigns
Kofi has contributed his voice and lived experience to national suicide prevention campaigns, bringing important conversations to audiences beyond the room.
Kofi appeared in The Royal Foundation’s “On Your Side” suicide prevention campaign. His contribution draws on his experience as an athlete and mental health advocate. The campaign encourages people to recognise when someone may be struggling and to begin a conversation.
View the confirmed campaign sourceKofi shared his personal experience in NHS Greater Manchester’s Shining a Light on Suicide campaign, speaking openly about the challenges that can sit behind outward success and the importance of reaching out for support.
Speaking with young athletesSpeaking
Kofi builds honest, practical conversations from lived experience in elite sport and mental health. In schools, communities, healthcare settings, workplaces and professional sport, he helps people recognise their own agency and take the next step forward. This is the Why Not I message: change can begin with them.
Practical, human conversations that make it easier to recognise struggle, speak honestly and reach for support — so the next step feels possible.
A grounded look at pressure, identity and sustainable resilience — and how people can respond with purpose when expectations are high.
How people can build belief without pretending doubt does not exist — and why belonging and aspiration change what feels possible.
Selected speaking engagements
What people say
Direct reflections from public life, healthcare and community settings.
“Kofi’s story is powerful to hear and his delivery and advocacy for mental health is unwavering.”
Former president of the Law Society of England and Wales
Invited Kofi to speak on a House of Commons panel and recommended him as a speaker.
“Kofi was able to help the children see that there really is light at the end of the tunnel and that with the right support anything is possible!”
NHS Senior Occupational Therapist Assistant
“This resonated deeply with many of the men, who saw parallels between Kofi’s background and their own.”
“We received outstanding feedback from both the men and the staff, who said that for those few hours, they felt as though they were not in prison but rather in their community, playing basketball with friends and family.”
HMP Buckley Hall
The athlete · The speaker · The humanPersonal story
Raised in Birmingham, Kofi’s path has taken him from British basketball to representing Great Britain and England on the international stage. He has applied his trade professionally for over a decade, playing in more than seven countries across the USA, Europe and the Middle East, and remains a British basketball scoring record point holder.
Beyond sport, he has been internationally published as a fashion and commercial model for world-renowned recognisable brands, and represented Team England as a Commonwealth athlete at the Gold Coast games in Australia. He remains an active professional athlete, living the demands, identity shifts and pressures that come with elite sport.
His own mental health journey showed him how much can sit behind outward success. Speaking grew from a desire to make those conversations more honest, more human and easier to begin — so people feel able to take the next step.
That purpose also led Kofi to start the Why Not I movement: a way of helping people, especially in schools and communities, recognise their own potential and take a practical step forward. Whether the audience is young people, businesses and corporates, healthcare professionals or elite athletes, the belief is the same — change can begin with the person listening.
Booking enquiries
Enquiries are welcome for keynotes, panels, workshops and events across sport, education, healthcare, workplaces and communities.
Direct enquiry
Kofi@whynoti.co.uk