My name is Mathew Ingle AKA Mat the Leg, I am 50 years old and live in Nottingham.
In 2018 I had a accident falling off some step ladders and snapped my tibia and fibula just above my right ankle. It didn't heal properly and in Sept 2020 I had my leg amputated below my knee.
I now look at life a lot differently having had a few close calls with mental health issues since the accident and during my recovery.
Starting on 16th September this year, I'm going to walk Hadrian's Wall -approx 87 mile over 5-6 days, with my walking companion Frank. The starting date of the 16th marks 4 years since my amputation. Having hit rock bottom and got myself to a place where I can realistically do this both physically and mentally, I'd love to raise as much money in sponsorship as possible for Safe Space Movement.
Thank you for reading,
Mat the Leg
About Safe Space Movement
After 3 years of putting together an amazing team and working relentlessly on pages and pages of documents. Safe Space Movement has been awarded with our charity number, and our phone lines are launched. We are now an officially registered Mental Health charity with a public facing roll helping people in need.
So far we have raised enough money to be able to launch our phone service and running costs for our 1st 6 months as a public facing service helping people in need. This challenge and our goal will ensure we will be able to fully run self sufficiently for 12 months.
If you would like to find out more about Safe Space Movement. Please check out our website https://safespacemovement.co.uk/
To see a world where everyone has a safe space to find common ground within our society, understand they are not alone and find that support is available every step of the way.
To eradicate the stigma associated with mental health and asking for help so that everyone can get the right support they need, when they need it. To extinguish feelings of loneliness and isolation from whomever is experiencing it.
On the 15th July 2020, my Mum phoned me distressed and crying. I knew something terrible had happened. My 24-year-old nephew Calvin was found dead, hanging in his home. Calvin was a handsome, intelligent, empathetic, strong young man. He had a fantastic job, nice car, always out having fun. Everyone looked up to Calvin. He was the brother and friend everyone would go to for advice on their life problems. He was the person always there to help.
The following day his family and friends organised a massive meet up to celebrate his life. He was into his cars and quad bikes and was a much-loved popular figure within the car and quad bike meet up community. The sheer amount of people who turned up to mourn and celebrate his life was overwhelming. In his short time living his life he had inspired, was loved and looked up to by so many people. Not a single person out of the 100s and 100s gathered could work out how such an amazing, strong young man could have taken his life. The pressures of bills, depression, life amidst Covid 19 had become too much for this beautiful young man, and he just didnt reach out to anyone. The irony that so many people had turned up to show their respects, who loved and admired him. Everyone of them would have been there to help.
At the same time, I had found myself and my business that I had dedicated my life to for 30 years come under attack online by a hate group and website. Spreading lies and misinformation, it hurt seeing complete fabrications written about myself, my partner, and our organisation. As we started to investigate, we realised a number of people in our industry had come under attack by the same group. Some of them had found themselves in a vulnerable place, depressed, and suicidal. We had to help.
Cyber bullies can literally get away with murder. Hiding behind IP addresses, and fake accounts, almost impossible to track down. Waiting in the wings to attack and hurt people. Eventually the cyber bullies slipped up. We had built up evidence of 100s and 100s of pages of bullying, lies and hate to present to the police, and the culprits bosses at work. We helped several people to grow in confidence and stand up to the cyber bullies who had been playing with their mental health for far too long.
No matter how hard things are, someone is always there to listen. Just reach out.
Daniel Light (Billy Daniel Bunter)
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