Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I am running my FIRST (and possibly only) half marathon on 17 March 2019 at Hampton Court.  I am doing this to challenge myself but also to raise money for North London Samaritans.  I can assure it is proving a challenge!  I am not built for running.  But I have my trusty coach Neil helping and encouraging me.

Samaritans is a charity whose vision is to ensure fewer people die of suicide.  Samaritans work to achieve this vision by making it their mission to allieviate emotional distress and reduce the suicidal feelings and behaviour.

This work is done by volunteers who give up their time each week to speak on the telephone, answer text messages and e-mails and carry out face to face meetings with distressed individuals who have turned to the Samaritans for help.  Additionally, the support needed to run such an organisation, eg fund-raising, administration, training etc is also carried out by volunteers and organised on a local basis.  Hence North London Samaritans is run locally by local volunteers.

In these days of concern about mental health issues, I believe that this charity does extremely important work.  As one of the volunteers at North London Samaritans I know how many people use and need the support we offer.  There are a large number of lonely and unhappy people in this country.

In 2017/18 our branch answered 12,330 calls of which
8,111 were telephone calls
2,647 were SMS
1,572 e-mails
These calls can come from anywhere in the country.

Any contribution you can make would be greatly appreciated.

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.