After a lifechanging year without the added extra worry of the COVID pandemic.

Following 17 combined years in both the Army and Fire and Rescue Service I suffered a massive mental breakdown in Feb 2020, after many years of not feeling "right" I eventually broke down. The fear, the anxiety, the not understanding what was going on, or how and why is this happening to me was the most painful and scary point of my life and eventually I was diagnosed with PTSD. At one point I was living alone in a caravan, relying on food banks and charity handouts just to survive. I actually hit rock bottom. If it wasn't for the charity that I'm raising money for, I can safely say that I wouldn't be here today. Like so many others, especially as we move through the pandemic, mental health “the invisible injury" often carries a stigma of personal confusion, failure and weakness. The unfortunate result of this is that its often covered up and ultimately and sadly miss-understood. I hope my actions to raise both awareness and money to help many others that most importantly, it gives an understanding that it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, never be ashamed to raise a hand and admit that something isn't quite right.. My challenge is to help raise the much needed money for the Armed Forces charity SSAFA who without a shadow of a doubt saved my life and secondly, to raise the awareness of mental health and its impact on lives and families and offer support to anybody regardless of background, civilian, military, emergency services, mums, dads, whoever. My challenge is that I am completing a 10km march carrying 30kg on my back everyday of lockdown until we are reduced from Tier 4. So please, give kindly. Keep moving, keep positive.