Hi everyone! 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Apologies for the slightly self-indulgent rant that follows - tl;dr - Mind are a fab charity and I'm hoping to raise some money to support the work they do. 

I have (stupidly!) signed up for the London Vitality 10k in May, to raise money for Mind, the mental health charity. On my '30 before 30' list, I said I'd like to run a charity 5 or 10k, and this will be a month before my birthday, all being well! 🏃🏻‍♀️

As I'm sure you all know, I have never been the most physically fit person in the world! However, if you've seen on my Instagram, I have recently been taking part in the 'Couch to 5k' program, spurred on by the creation of the BW running club at school. I've tried to complete it a few times before, but never managed to get past week 1! This time around, at the end of week 1, I managed to have a pretty epic fall and buggered up my knee for a couple of weeks (fail!). Normally, that would be the end of another attempt for me, but this time it wasn't. And I think I know why.

You see, last year was a pretty dodgy year for me (Apologies to all those I've blabbed on about this to already, I have been told many times that I am too honest and like to talk too much, my bad!). I thought becoming a parent was tough, but what was even tougher for me was my return to work. I was pretty ok at my job before I had Link. I knew every single member of my year group, my team knew what to expect of me and I of them, and I knew the spec I was teaching like the back of my hand. Coming back to a new year group of 210 Y8 girls who’d never seen me before, a new team who didn't know me or what I was about, new classes who didn't know my reputation from before, and a really complicated and difficult new teaching syllabus... And all with a child who refused to sleep! I'll be honest, it wasn't fun! But what was less fun was that I kept the fact that I was struggling inside me for so long. I didn't want to appear 'weak'; that I couldn't do my job as well as I could before; that I couldn't handle being a working mum. It was only through (eventually!) opening up and talking to people that things finally started to get better; not perfect, just better.

Because of this, Max and I decided to try and make more of an effort to do more for 'us' this year. Take time for our own mental wellbeing. "You can't pour from an empty cup" and all that jazz. So one of the things I took up was running. As I write this, it's currently December and I am about to do my first 25 minute run, what the hell?!? I still won't say that I 'love' running, but it is definitely making me feel better, both physically and mentally.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy for some people to get the support they need to improve their mental health. The official statistics say that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem each year, however from my work and experience I am willing to bet that that is a hell of a lot more. It is shocking that in this day and age, there is still such a stigma attached to mental health issues, in a way you would never see with physical health issues. This is why Mind have said that they won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect. They provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. In addition, they have many local organisations, providing services including supported housing, crisis helplines, drop-in centres, employment and training schemes, counselling and befriending.

No-one should have to face a mental health problem alone.

So here's the challenge I've set myself. I need to raise £200 to officially enter the race. I will post training updates on here if you're interested! If you've managed to read this far, thank you, and wish me luck! 💜 Thank you so much xxxxxxx

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.