Fraser G, Fraser C & Sarah take on the Brighton Marathon on Sunday 7th April - Ryan Connell Foundation

After one too many drinks at a wedding in December, Fraser C, Sarah and I agreed to enter and run the Brighton Marathon on Sunday 7th April. Whilst this was decided as part of a fitness challenge/bucket list, we thought it would be a great opportunity to raise funds and awareness for the Ryan Connell Foundation - a cause that is extremely close to our hearts.

As most of you will be aware, In March 2021 we tragically lost our beloved friend/son/brother Ryan to suicide after a 7 month battle with mental health. Ryan's family (George, Shirley and Katie) set up the Ryan Connell Foundation to keep Ryan's memory alive whilst raising funds for various charity organisations that are close to the family's heart after this tragedy. The devastation and heartbreak left in the wake of Ryan's death was immeasurable. He touched the hearts of so many people over the years and he was the absolute salt of the earth - you never got him any other way than cheeky and happy!

A few weeks later in April 2021 Sarah unexpectedly lost her dad to suicide. He was a supportive, dedicated, hardworking husband, dad and friend who was incredibly cheerful with a sarcastic sense of humour and always up for an adventure. Over the years he helped many through their mental health battles and did an immense amount of charity work as a volunteer for his local mountain rescue team for over 30 years.

For the three of us, it is extremely important to continue raising awareness and funds for charities to help them obtain the resources necessary to provide their vital services to prevent other families/friends losing a loved one through suicide. To date, the Ryan Connell Foundation has raised over £95,000 for many charities including Brothers in Arms, Chris’s House, Men Matter, Mind the Men, Kindness Homeless Glasgow, Samaritans, SAMH and Street Soccer Scotland.

The money raised will be donated to Chris's House by the Ryan Connell Foundation - details on this charity are included below.

Chris's House - What they do

As taken directly from their website (https://chrisshouse.org/):-

Chris’s House stands for ‘Centre of Help, Response and Intervention Surrounding Suicide’ and has been set up to offer a safe environment where people in, or approaching, suicidal crisis can have a safe place to go and get professional support. This will help them to begin to recover from their current mental ill health. At Chris’s House we call anyone using our service a “Guest” and we offer an individually tailored programme for each Guest.

Our guests will be assigned to a volunteer who will develop a strong rapport to help them through the crisis and support them to counter depression, negative and despairing thoughts and exchange reasons for dying with reasons for living. We truly listen to our guests and offer them appropriate therapies to aid them in their recovery journey. We will work in partnership with other established agencies to offer the best possible ongoing care.

The work done by Chris's House is absolutely amazing and we know that the funds will go a long way for this charity. We appreciate that times are tough at the moment, however, any donation (large or small) is massively appreciated by Fraser C, Sarah and I as well as the Connell family. We have initially set this up with the aim to raise £1,000 due to how close we are to the event (<4 weeks away), however, it would be fantastic to reach the break the £1,500 mark and beyond! ** UPDATE - thank you to those that have donated already! Thanks to your generosity, we have smashed our initial target and we are now looking to raise £2,500 any beyond! **

Thanks,

Fraser G, Fraser C & Sarah x

Ryan Connell & Charlie McCreadie - Always remembered, never forgotten.