Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On the 30^th August 2019, we will be celebrating my big brother Mark’s 49^th birthday, a day that will come and go like many others I guess, so to celebrate the occasion I thought I should do something special for him, so I have decided to complete a Tandem Skydive with my best mate James Lowe.

It would be fair to ask why we are doing this, so we would
like to give you an explanation as to why we have decided to jump out of a plane at 15,000ft!

On the 31^st July 2009, I was sat by a poolside in Greece, drinking a beer when my phone rang, it was my younger brother Craig, he was due to join me and my family a couple of days later for the last week of
our holiday. Craig wasn’t ringing to enquire as to the weather, the pool, the food or the quality of the local beer. He was ringing to tell me that Mark had taken his own life and had committed suicide that very morning.

Mark was the very best big brother, he was hard working, polite, respectful and kind hearted, and as usual on the morning of the 31^st
July and just like every other day, had ironed his work shirt, packed his sandwiches in his lunch box and readied himself for a shift at work. On that morning though Mark had decided that he couldn’t face the day ahead, something switched, something changed his mind, something left him feeling unable to face another day. So as calmly and methodically as he did everything in life, he got a chair, took his work belt, removed the loft hatch and hung himself. I don’t know what happened on that morning, but I hope he found peace and I hope that the pain stopped.

I have since that morning made it my mission to talk openly
to my friends, family, colleagues and pretty much anybody that will listen to me about mental health. Suicide is the most common cause of death for men aged 20-49 years in England and Wales, then add the words anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and stress into the equation and I hope that you will see why I am constantly trying to raise awareness around these subjects.

So, why are James and I jumping out of a plane? The simple answer is  ‘awareness’, if we strive to make the subjects sociably acceptable,  if
we break the taboo and don’t shy away from these difficult conversations, then maybe more people will reach out for help.

Our aim is two fold, First is to get as many people as possible to start asking their mates how they are?, ask if they are alright?, ask if they need a chat?. I fully accept that life is busy, but if we can stop one more suicide through conversation then we have succeeded in some little way!

Our second aim is to raise as much money as possible, we have
chosen to support PAPYRUS who are a UK Charity for the prevention
of young suicide, their mission statement is -

We exist to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives by shattering the stigma around suicide and equipping young people
and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to suicidal behaviour.

So our hope is to raise money to help support their confidential
helpline, HOPELINEUK 0800 068 4141. We are asking you to donate whatever you can, a donation whether big or small might just mean that the phone is answered when someone needs to reach out.