Story
We Mind & Kelly Matters was formed in 2019 after the devastating loss of our beautiful daughter, sister and friend Kelly Francesca Hewitt. We as a charity have been supported incredibly by generous donations and word of mouth to raise our profile. This has allowed our charity to develop and expand our services, as we now offer free support via an emotional online chat service 7 nights a week (6pm-9pm), free counselling sessions, training and education services to businesses, schools and the wider community.
In 2020, our co-founder John Hewitt (Kelly's father) decided he was going to take on a huge challenge of cycling over 1,000 miles from John O'Groats to Lands End. He amongst 11 other friends and support crew took this challenge on and completed it in 13 days. They raised an incredible £130,000, whilst raising awareness of Mental Health.
This year, John Hewitt, his daughter Amy and other Kelly's Heroes cyclists will be taking on another extreme challenge over a 31 day period. Starting on the 10th September (World Suicide Prevention Day), 12 cyclists will begin their journey from Spain, through France and Germany, cycling approximately 1900 miles and over 91,500ft climbing to reach Sendenhorst in Germany in 10 days. Then on the 24th September, another team of 12 will cycle from Newark in the US, cycling 3,343 miles and climbing 145,427ft in total, over a 17 day period (includes 1 day of rest) finishing on the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco on 10th October (World Mental Health Day)
Our overall goal is to reach a total of 52,000 miles, which is the distance it would take to go around the world twice - synonymous to the Mental Wellbeing ideology "Ask twice". Our main aim is to break the stigma and raise as much awareness for Mental Health as possible, because it's "OK not to be OK".
Our headline sponsor for this event is VEKA, who are not only supporting us but are encouraging their own Employees, Suppliers and Customers to get involved and contribute to the total mileage.
We would love as many people as possible to get behind this and help us reach our goal, this may include, cycling, walking, running, jogging, hiking, swimming, whatever it may be to contribute to our total miles! You can do this either physically or virtually and a total mile count will be collected through apps such as Strava and Fitbit.