Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This is my personal story behind the reason for this challenge.

A lot of people on my socials have seen that over the last 6-12 months I have been venturing out on random solo hikes and climbs, some out in the middle of nowhere, some in the dark, some in shocking conditions, and pretty much all of which at a last-minutes thought.

Some have called me crazy due to purposely putting myself in challenging situations, especially with hardly any experience, but there were always reasons behind my actions. Reasons that many will not know about until reading this. But those actions have now enabled me to overcome an overwhelming amount of stress, anxiety, and mental struggles that had clouded my life over the past few years.

I have been 2 different people over these years, putting on a confident "everything is ok" front to both family and friends and carried on with life outside of my own company as usual. However, I’m now not ashamed to admit that this was far from the truth and that things weren’t ok, I was too proud to let on and speak out of the pain inside yet could not bear to put worry on those closest to me, especially family, so I felt it was best to close the door on those I know would have happily tried to help if I’d have asked, but instead I tried dealing with my emotions and situations alone, however this became too much at times which slowly brought on the waves of stress and anxiety leading to feeling claustrophobic in my own ways. I felt no direction, no way out, and just thought that this would be the life of suffering I would have to endure for as long as it takes, and if it was only me that was hurting then I could handle that and just hope that things would eventually come good. But the truth was it was just getting too hard to handle.

I soon came to realise that this never had to be the case, nor would things ever change for as long I remained in that mindset. I knew I didn’t deserve to suffer, I knew I had to do something, so by strapping up the boots and getting out in the middle of nowhere I was able to reinvent myself one piece at a time. Then step by step, hike after hike, 1 summit after another, I now able to proudly hold my head high each and every day and can say that I have now found the direction I was so desperately trying to find, I got out of the ‘no way out’ mentality, and iv no need to just ‘deal with the suffering’ anymore. All by simply getting outdoors and clearing the mind each time I fell into the ‘no way out’ mindset.

The feeling of mental freedom iv now discovered from the outdoors cannot be described by words, so this is why I want to try and inspire people to strap up their boots and get out so that they can experience the relief, satisfaction, and freedom just as I have.

It is believed that between 284-300 MILLION individuals live with anxiety-related disorders worldwide and between 264-300 MILLION individuals live with depression worldwide.

We all know somebody that is struggling in 1 way or the other. It maybe you reading this now that feels the same way I did. But there IS a way out, there are 1000’s of walks/hikes on our doorstep, and there is ALWAYS somebody to talk to, there is absolutely NO SHAME in admitting your struggles!

FOLLW ME ON INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK TO KEEP UP WITH MY PROGRESS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

A PEAK A WEEK…LET’S GO!!