In 2016 my best friend Daniel Voysey took his own life after suffering with depression for many years. A lot of you will have known him, some of you knew him very well, and so many others met him through his many different walks of life.

Daniel was not someone you would easily forget and those
who were lucky enough to have met him, were instantly taken by his desire and
enthusiasm to enjoy everything and to always laugh. To me he was
basically a super hero and luckily I let him know that often. 

Daniel was someone I trusted the most and loved for many reasons but mostly, he was my best friend. In my mind, it is totally beyond any kind of reasoning that I was unable to help him with his demons which he hid so well from all of us closest to him and is something I struggle with every day. 

 I never fully understood depression and am ashamed to admit I was fairly naive to the effects of poor mental health until the day Daniel died. I had never suffered with either and was lucky to mostly feel positive and happy a lot of the time. One outcome for me personally after losing him is that I now suffer with moments of intense anxiety and severe low mental state from time to time. Luckily, I know where I can find help personally when I need it and with that in MIND I decided I needed to do something that was a little extravagant, challenging, exciting and something that I could be proud of and to finally achieve something in memory of Daniel, which is important to me. So my magnificent friend Clare and I have signed up to complete the THREE PEAKS challenge, climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pyke and Snowdon in 24 hours on the 28 June 2019. In doing so, we will raise money for MIND charity who do extraordinary work for mental health. 

Daniel's passion for adventure took him to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in 2007 and he absolutely loved it. I wonder now if his fascination with mountains and wide open spaces represented vast mental space to him, somewhere to escape his thoughts and I hope to get the same breath of fresh air from my experience, whilst raising money to go towards helping others who might be struggling in the same way Daniel was.  

The awareness of mental health and suicide has become a
lot more publicly visible in the last two years, in particular awareness of
suicide in men and we would very much like to raise as much money as we
possibly can to aid the fight against this horrific disease. 

You can learn more about MIND here: https://www.mind.org.uk/  

There is also more information about the challenge here: https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/donate-or-fundraise/take-on-an-active-challenge/trek-for-mind/three-peaks-june/

There is not a single day that I don't think about Daniel
and this challenge will help me personally to have a positive goal ahead and to
create some amazing memories with Clare, as we achieve this together. 

One of Daniel's favourite songs "Every time I close my eyes I see Mountains" written by Clare and which you can download here: 

https://clareblackman.bandcamp.com/track/every-time-i-close-my-eyes-i-see-mountains

All proceeds will go towards our MIND fundraising account. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our message and thank you so much if you chose to sponsor us too.  

G & C

(Team Cherbinoggs)