Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On World Mental Health Day, I was inspired by two authors I recently had the pleasure of hearing tell their stories on their struggles with mental health. These stories really resonated with me, and were told by Mark Simmonds & Liz McConaghy, two of the nicest people you could meet

I completed a challenge last year for Mind, and always planned to do something more challenging this year. So, I've decided to raise money for mental health this November with a month long challenge

The plan is to do what I can to put into focus what I consider to be the worst case outcome for someone who is battling with their mental health - Suicide

Acording to the WHO - "Every year 726,000 people take their own life and there are many more people who make suicide attempts. Every suicide is a tragedy that affects families, communities and entire countries and has long-lasting effects on the people left behind. Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and was the third leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds globally in 2021"

I focused on that number of 726,000 people, and decided to build my challenge around this

My challenge - In memory of those who lose their mental health battle to suicide each year, is to lift 1kg per person, so a total of 726,000

My goal - To raise at least £726, or £1 for every 1000 people who have died from suicide.

To give some perspective, last year was the push up challenge for Mind, where I completed 2000 push ups in November. In a push up, we lift around 50-70% of our bodyweight. So, 2000 push ups at 78kg is between 78,000kg and 109,200kg of weight moved in November 2023, and I found that tough going at times

This year I imagine it will be even tougher

As a husband and father of two boys (one is 11, and the other is 15 and now sits in that worrying statistic above!) and who works full time, I anticipate that there will be both mental and physical difficulty in completing this task

I've been very fortunate in my life and haven't had many big issues to tackle, but I would say I've always struggled with maintaining mental resilience, so I'm always empathetic to those who have and do struggle with their mental health

Mind's work aims to ensure that no one has to face a mental health problem alone. With your help, Mind can provide support, information, and advice to people in need

If you can donate, please consider donating to this charity so that they can continue to help others

If you can't donate, but would like to, please know that it's absolutely no problem at all, and please don't let it get you down in any way. The last thing I want is for this to have a negative impact on your mental health from something positive we are trying to do for mental health

If you are reading this, it is worth just as much as donated money to me if you could help spread the word of this cause instead. A like enhances the potential reach and awareness, a share with your friends could help that reach or it could even just stimulate a conversation that could help you and your/their mental health, or that share could help reach others who are fortunate enough to be in a position to donate, any and all of which would be a very welcome and fantastic help. Even if you can't do any if the above, please know that it's also absolutely no problem at all

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.