I'm doing something a bit different for my birthday this year. It'll still be colourful and messy - but in a totally different way!

Instead of a night out, I'm running a 5km race and asking people to donate whatever they would have spent on a card/drinks/meal/pressie/fancy dress/taxi home etc to MIND - the mental health charity.

Life should be colourful!

But for many people, it's very grey.

• 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year
• At any one time, roughly one in six people is experiencing a mental health problem
• More people die by suicide each year than by murder and war combined
• Suicide is the second biggest cause of death worldwide among 15-19 year olds
• Mental health services in the UK receive just 13% of the NHS budget, while supporting 28% of the demand 

The recent recession and welfare reforms have increased demand for mental health services at a time when funding is being cut. See this recent MIND survey and Guardian article for more information.

Leeds MIND supports tons of great projects, including Inkwell Arts: a creative arts space that helps users develop life skills such as teamwork and problem solving, leading to increased confidence and improved well being.  Services include:

• Housing

• Workplace Leeds (employment, job retention and employment peer support)

• Wellbeing including 1:1 work, befriending, counselling, peer support and Inkwell

Thank you for supporting MIND :)

The race: Color Me Rad

The race I'm running is Color Me Rad: 9.30am at Harewood House in Leeds on Sat 17 May.

Runners start the race dressed all in white. As we run round the course, we get coloured paint thrown at us - everyone crosses the finish line looking like a psychedelic hippy cyber kid!

If you want to come watch me hobble and flail my way round the course, throw paint at me or join in the race (there's still some spaces for the 9.30am start!), click on the link below for info:

Leeds Color Me Rad

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and helping to make life colourful for as many people as possible.

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.