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The decision to run the London Marathon 2023 was an easy one. Choosing the cause was not so. However, YMCA Plymouth are a very valuable resource to the local community, as are all branches across England and Wales. The Queen (RIP) had been a patron since 1952, after succeeding her father, King George the VI.

Matthew Charlton has elected to run his first ever half marathon, in support of the cause, which takes place in March 2023. He has only been running for a short time, but has elected to train hard for his first half marathon, to benefit the YMCA, as he is a user of their services. We shall both be running numerous events over the next 22 weeks, in the run up to London 2023, which is being held on the 23rd April. These additional events will serve to motivate us, test our progression in a race setting, and keep our fundraising efforts fresh.

The runs are being done in the memory of a very dear friend, Jake Ovenden, who tragically took his own life at Christmas of 2020, due to suffering from severe mental health issues. He was unable to get help or support, and felt there was no other way to end his long term misery, than to commit suicide. #IAMWHOLE is the YMCA's campaign to fight the stigma of mental health issues across the UK.

A big part of the work undertaken by YMCA, which is a non-profit organisation, is mental health support. Plymouth itself run an 'Every Man Matters' support group, which, had something like this been available to Jake, the outcome may have been different for him. His circumstance are the motivation for this cause. More information about the YMCA mental health campaign can be found on their 'Changing minds' project web page (link below)

Changing Minds - YMCA England and Wales

But YMCA also provide lots of other community support, from helping with housing issues and homelessness, hildcare and pre-school, adult learning and career benefits, counselling and support groups, gyms, fitness and wellbeing advice for everyone, with specialised disability and rehabilitation sessions, food banks and much much more, that benefit the community as a whole, right across the country.

I hope you will see this as a truly worthwhile cause, for a very touching reason, and therefore will sponsor us to push ourselves to our limits! Running for 20 minutes is hard enough, let alone running for 26.2miles! We both promise to work hard to achieve our goals, and fight the dreaded winter training season, in order to raise as much money as we can, for the YMCA.

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