Leon's Half-marathon fundraising page
Leon Rodin is raising money for Place2Be
Story
As some of my friends and family may or may not know, I have experienced many of life’s mental challenges over recent years, bouts of anxiety and depression, all of which I’ve managed to put behind me through the support of my friends, family and by building resilience.
This has taught me first-hand the importance of managing and maintaining mental as well as physical health.
Ioved the last couple of years I have.been building a new business focussed on helping employers and employees get ahead of the mental health pandemic we face as a society. We are on a mission to help 10 million minds to thrive, providing tools to help people get a clear picture of their overall behavioural health.
Part of our early work was in schools and colleges, which exposed me to some of the stark facts about mental health and young people:
- 1 in 8 children today have a diagnosable mental health problem
- 50% of people with lifetime mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age 14 and 70% by the age of 21
- Rates of depression and anxiety among teenagers have increased by 70% in the past 25 years
- 6 in 10 young people reporting being victims of cyberbullying and one in eight children (12%) aged 10–15 reported being bullied at school
- Children in England from the age of 13 who reported being bullied or victimised by their peers, and found that they were twice as likely to develop depression by age 18.
As a parent of two children under 10, I, like all parents am concerned by the increasing challenges of life that are adding to this increase in distress especially in a post Covid world and given the financial challenges in health services and schools.
The cause I have chosen to run for is an organisation who tries to make an impact to improve children’s mental health, Place2Be.
They are a children's mental health charity that works to improve the emotional wellbeing of children and young people. They help them to cope with wide-ranging and often complex social issues including bullying, bereavement, domestic violence, family breakdown, neglect and trauma.