Our Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My family, friends and I wish to fundraise and raise awareness for body dysmorphic disorder via the BDD Foundation. We lost Charlotte, our beloved sister, daughter and friend, following a battle with BDD late last year. She would have been turning 33 in May, so we plan to collectively cover 330km (walking or running) between the 4th-11th May in her memory.

I would like to describe my sister for those who didn't know her. Charlotte was a beautiful and amazing person. She was highly driven and achieved so much through her own self-determination, including moving to Australia for 4 years by herself and running 4 marathons in Leeds, Amsterdam, Helsinki and Adelaide. Intelligent, artistic, funny, kind and caring - she was everything I could have asked for in a sister. We miss her so so much, and we all carry indescribable pain with us every second of each day without her. We are now fundraising in the hope no one else has to go through the same

Participating

Any donation, no matter how small, would be hugely appreciated and go to the much-needed cause. We would also be very grateful if you could spread the awareness of BDD in whatever capacity.

If you wish to work towards the goal of 330km (4th-11th May) with us, wherever you are, you can join the Strava group. To join, you just need to follow the steps below:

1) Follow me on Strava. Link to page: https://strava.app.link/ZPpD4EG6OIb

2) I will follow back and invite you to the challenge. Accept the invite via app or email.

3) You will be able to see the challenge by navigating to Groups > Active. Any distance you track and complete between 4th and 11th May will count towards our collective goal.

We also plan to walk around Fewston and Swinsty reservoirs collectively on Saturday 11th May, a place that holds great significance to us as it was the place Charlotte would train for her marathons. Anyone is welcome to join so please get in touch with us if you wish to attend.

About BDD

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), closely related to OCD, is an anxiety disorder related to body image, causing the sufferer to view their appearance unfairly and negatively. Having BDD does not mean you're vain or self-obsessed. The illness has a big impact on your life - causing persistent and intrusive thoughts, significant distress and impacting behavior and functioning.

BDD is suggested to impact about 1 in 50 people within the general population, and yet it is still not widely recognised or discussed. Lots of people who seek treatment receive the wrong diagnosis for other disorders such as depression or social anxiety, and consequently don't receive the correct treatment. Most people suffer for 10-15 years before getting the right diagnosis.

It is extremely important for this to change, as the illness can lead to high rates of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalization, unemployment, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. The rates of these risk factors are alarmingly high.

The Charity

The BDD Foundation are a small, volunteer-led charity aiming to tackle BDD by raising awareness for the condition and providing help and support for BDD sufferers.

Their BDD Foundation website can be found here: https://bddfoundation.org/