Karolina is a Counselling student with a Psychology degree and several years of experience in working in a Mental Health Medium Secure Hospital as a support worker.

Her passion for mental health and wellbeing is embedded in the education path she has chosen for herself, and the work she has done with patients is extremely valuable, despite the challenges that she encountered over the years.

National and international focus on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing is becoming more important every day, however many people are still left alone with their struggles, and the opportunity for early intervention to prevent things getting worse is constantly missed due to the lack of funding.

Karolina took up cycling as a hobby in 2020 and has reached the personal goal of 100k in one day. In order to raise awareness for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Karolina has pledged that she will cycle for 150k on Easter Sunday 2022 – how cool is that?!

Karolina has decided to partner up with Musicality – Therapeutic Music Intervention C.I.C, a Community Interest Company that uses the therapeutic elements of music to boost confidence and self-esteem, encourage social interaction, inclusion and a sense of belonging, use of language and movement to foster self-expression, to work on improving mental health and emotional wellbeing of different groups of the Southend on Sea community.

The project that Karolina will be raising money towards is TUNE YOUR MOOD, a sing-along session where people of all walks of life can join by singing along to songs that are meaningful to them, stepping outside of their comfort zone singing to songs that they are not as familiar with, utilise the space to share how they are feeling through famous lyrics and appreciate that they are not alone.

TUNE YOUR MOOD is a group session, everyone will be able to decide whether to hum, sing quietly, shout at the top of their lungs depending on how comfortable they feel, there is no pressure to be in the spotlight and perform for others.

Scientific research shows that singing is a great activity that benefits people in many ways:

Stress Relief

Stimulates Immune Response

Improves Confidence and Self-Esteem

Increases Pain Threshold

Improves Lung Function

Enhances Memory

Helps with Grief

Boosts the Mood

The aim of these sessions is to offer some respite from overwhelming thoughts, a chance to take a breath and relax, as well as using singing as a ‘mindfulness activity’ and de-stress from busy everyday life.

By sponsoring Karolina’s challenge, you will be helping raising money towards the free provision of TUNE YOUR MOOD sessions, so that anyone in the Southend community who may feel like they could benefit from the group will be able to attend without having to worry about finances.

Any donation will be greatly appreciated and even £1 will go a long way, but here's some examples to give you context of what you will be helping towards:

£5 donation will fund 1 session for 1 person to attend.

£10 donation will allow 2 people to attend once.

£20 donation will be a FULL MONTH attendance for 1 person.

£50 donation will pay for all costs involved to run 1 session.

Karolina’s goal is to reach £1500, which will be enough to run the group for people to join for free for at least 6 months, as it will pay for all the expenses needed to fund the group, such as equipment, materials and rent of the venue.

People will be able to access through self-referral or be referred by Social Prescribers by contacting Musicality - Therapeutic Music Interventions C.I.C. to book their place.

At the end of the 6 months the TUNE YOUR MOOD group participants will organise a performance in Southend on Sea to thank the people who have donated towards the project and showcase their talent.