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Former professional ice hockey player Sheldon Kennedy has been in 鈥渓ong-term mental health hospitals鈥� and spent time in jail due to the psychological effects of sexual abuse, he claims.

Speaking to 5 live鈥檚 Dotun Adebayo, he said he 鈥渇elt like dying all the time鈥� after suffering the abuse at the hand of his former coach, and became a 鈥渒id that was a write-off.鈥�

鈥滻 always knew that that wasn鈥檛 me, but I was living that way鈥�, he said.

鈥淭here is hope for everybody to move on and get through this and when we talk about this stuff, yes we have to understand what happened, but we also have to talk about a solution.鈥�

Kennedy鈥檚 former coach Graham James pleaded guilty in 1997 to sexually abusing three players, including Sheldon Kennedy, and was sentenced to a 42-month prison term.

This clip is originally from Up All Night on Wednesday 7 December 2016.