Starting on the 1st of September, I’m taking on a 200-mile challenge as part of Venture Round Scotland!

Venture Round Scotland is our biggest community fundraiser yet. Together, our amazing supporters will walk, run, cycle, roll, or swim their way to 11,646 miles – the length of Scotland’s mainland coastline – to raise £11,646 in support of young people’s mental health.

I'll be trying to clock up 200 miles by running and walking over the next 30 days!

I’ve worked with Venture Scotland for nearly four years, and I’m still in awe every day of the impact our programmes have. I’ve seen young people go from feeling hopeless and not wanting to live, or carrying unimaginable trauma, to finding safety, belonging, confidence, and hope for the future, within a few weeks on our programmes. Venture Scotland offers a place of solace, support, and transformation.

And right now, young people need us more than ever.

Funding our long-term, outdoor-based personal development programme is becoming harder, while every week we see other vital services closing. In a country where suicide is the leading cause of death among children and young adults – accounting for one in four lives lost between 2011 and 2020 – these services are truly life-saving.

This September, we’re asking our community to invest in young people: in their lives, their well-being, and their future.