Nearly five years ago my friend and colleague took his own life.

In the midst of the overwhelming sadness, I was really shocked at the amount of ignorance about how this could have happened. Over the last few years I have worked to combat this and am really excited that lots of my colleagues have joined me on this journey. As part of this, here at WHSmith, we have matched the number of physical and Mental Health First Aiders and are now training all our store and line managers in a half day of awareness-raising. This will enable us all to look after our own and each other's mental health.

Normally we train a maximum of 16 people a day in one session - for this "trainathon" I am aiming to lead 6 sessions in 3 days and train over 100 people. We use the brilliant materials from Mental Health First Aid for the training so I am optimistic that I can do this, but I need to make sure that I prepare properly and have a good plan to look after myself as well as all of my trainees.

As part of our Mental Health First Aid training we learn to encourage people to get help if they are unwell - Mind provide some fantastic resources for this and by sponsoring me you will be helping Mind to continue with their mission - they won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.

For our 225th anniversary at WHSmith we are fundraising for Mind - any help you can give will make a difference so please support if you can.