Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I chose SANE because they are a local charity to me and I believe helping the causes on your doorstep is crucial.

My Charities Story: 

"SANE was established over 30 years ago by founder and CEO Marjorie Wallace CBE following the overwhelming public response to a series of articles she wrote entitled 'The Forgotten Illness' which were published in The Times. The charity has three main objectives:  they seek to raise awareness and combat stigma about mental illness and campaign to improve mental health services; provide frontline services to ease the burden upon people with mental health problems, their families and carers; promote and host research into the causes of, and more effective treatments for, serious mental illness." 

What your support will achieve: 

"The £5,000 you plan on raising could allow us to take 500 more calls on our frontline service, SANEline, or it could allow us to fully train 5 volunteers who will be able to take these calls, allowing people in crisis to have someone to listen to their call and to provide them with understanding, compassion and guidance. Your proposed fundraising will make a real difference to real people with real problems and as we do not receive any government funding, we rely on people like you to keep our services running." 

My story:

My name's Ben and I am 26. I began socially drinking and drug taking when I was just 13. I always saw it as a normal part of life to routinely  get involved with the social side of drinking and drug taking which I am sure many of you will relate to. A night down the boozer. A cheeky weekday sesh. An obligatory 5 day bender at a festival. The hangover at work. The fun times and the bad times. The fights and the love. I have seen friends lose themselves. I have seen many people underachieving in life. I have unfortunately seen lives attempted to end. I have seen lives lost. Untill this last year I believed and accepted it as a normal part of life and this now worries me. I then saw these issues in my own life. It was like blinkers lifted. I myself have and do experience anxiety, paranoia and dark levels of depression like never before. I am not saying that drink and drugs are directly related to this but I am sure they do not help people with underlining issues. I want to show you and the people around me what a change in lifestyle can achieve. That this 'social' way of thinking has negative effects to us. That we can do better and can achieve more. I will actively keep you up to date with my progress and meet and greet the SANE team and people like you and I and ask them for their views on mental health and the connection to drink and drugs. 

My main donors have pledged to input between £5-£20 a month to help me get to my target

Thank you for your support :) and let everyone know they can find help where they might need it. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.