For many years I sat in silence letting my mental health get the better of me, I would go from days of pure joy to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and hardly be noticeable. Then one evening I sat in the corner of my bathroom and had a complete breakdown and thought about ending it all, I planned to walk to the end of my road, climb up the bridge and jump the following day. However, that day I got a rather good stroke of luck and was awarded a place working on a American summer camp.

That summer was one of the best I've had, I felt sort of human. I met some of the greatest people; friends for life, enjoyed some crazy activities and of course soaked in the glorious sunshine, earning myself a tan worthy of Jamaican nationality. I loved it that much that I returned the following 2 summers. However, I found that on returning home my mental health would slowly start to decline back to what it was and  knew that I couldn't keep travelling to the US to keep me sane, so after my final summer in 2016 my mind was at an all time low. I was struggling financially, to find employment and felt so alone; a burden upon everyone.

Start of 2017 I made a resolution to get myself into shape. I had read up on other people suffering like myself and thought, what works for them might work for me. I've always been a sporty person so I felt it had a very high chance of working. I tried the gym side of things first without any reward so I started to take up running to huge success. I started out going on rather small, 2 possibly 3 mile routes down country lanes and through fields by me and my head would completely zone out. I loved it and the endorphin rush was such a high that I wanted it constantly. I began to increase the mileage for each run as the weeks went on and next thing I know I'm running 8-9 miles on a single outing. My mental health vastly improved, I became more confident, sociable and more like myself I even discovered my old competitive side giving myself challenges to beat my PB's. I went through the entirety of 2017 with a lot more positive outlook on life.

Here I am now in 2019 still here, still running, indeed it's given me the confidence to join a running club and I've gone on to compete in regional and national events. My mental health has never been this positive, I do still have my days where I'm feeling down but instead of feeling like a waste of space, I'm looking at ways at which I can improve. So I've sort of discovered my own source of medication/therapy but many people don't and that is what this fantastic charity provides to people, they provide constant help and support to sufferers of there own thoughts and emotions, so please, if you can help with a donation it would be great.

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