On the 3/5/2025 at 7:00 I will be embarking on walking 65 miles in a single 24hr period around the Isle of Wight and taking part in the Isle of Wight ultra challenge.

There are two reasons for me taking up this event.

The first being as a dedication to one of my best friends Simon Waddingham. Who on the 4/1/2025 I received the devastating news that out of no where he was found passed away. I had knew Si for over 22 years and in that time he had impacted my life heavily over that time. He was a friend, work buddy, Costco shopping mate, a joker, sort of movie fan, but most of all he was family - a brother.

So I thought no better time for us to have one last adventure together taking his memory along for company.

The second reason for me doing this challenge is for the wonderful organisation that is MIND. MIND provides information, support and advice for all people covering all mental health problems and help raise awareness. Their help and support can be accessed many ways such as phone or website. I have a big thank you owed to the MIND website as it has helped me both on a personal and professional level. It has helped me when at my lowest and also when I wanted to learn more it helped me work though and pass collage courses, so for me I can speak first hand over the level of help and support on all levels MIND provides. The website is really well laid out and easy to work your way around which is good for people who don’t know where to go help or what to ask or even where to start. Since the hardest thing for some people to do is open up about help with their or others mental health then the website is a fantastic place to start. You can find help on individual mental health disorder/issues, medication types, support groups or online forums, and your those people who want to help others but don’t know how to talk about the subject it also provides help and advice of how to have and structure those difficult conversations - as at some point we have all had or will have somebody asking for help but not knowing how to answer it we brush it off as a joke or change the subject.

If you take anything from this visit the MIND website, have a look around it as someday you never know it can make a difference to somebody’s day or even life.

thanks for taking the time to read this.

Bryan ☺️