A huge HELLO to friends, family, and soon-to-be-superheroes! You have arrived just in time to make a gigantic difference to children and young people struggling with their mental health; well done you!

I'm Laura and in late 2019 I founded the Oxfordshire Discovery College, a project looking to shake up how we think about mental health support and do exciting and innovating work. 1 in 8 children and young people have a mental health problem, and 14,000 of them are in Oxfordshire, so we need YOUR HELP to support them! And if I'm going to ask something of you, it's only fair that I do something in return...

I was due to be taking on the challenge in May; walking the 200 miles of Wainwright's Coast to Coast route, from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay. That's 200 miles in 12 days! Due to the pandemic, we've had to postpone until September, but we're still training hard and hugely committed to our goal. This is going to be a tough challenge for me, having never walked a distance anything like this before. I've recruited my trusty (compass-confident, exercise-enthusiast) friend Emily to walk with me and together we'll be embarking on this literal journey of discovery. I've also, in a slight moment of madness, added a stretch goal of a further 200 miles in training walks before we set off, totalling 400 miles!

Now YOUR job is to make sure I don't give up, and do you know the best way to do that? By making it feel like this is bigger than me. If you sponsor me (a few quid, a few hundred, whatever you can afford!), that money will go straight into the growth and delivery of The Discovery College; a vital youth mental health service. How could I give up on that?!

If you want to know more about the work we do, take a look at our website here:

https://www.oxfordshirediscovery.co.uk/

[Photo by Austin Pacheco on Unsplash]