As anyone who knows me will know that my two biggest loves in life are football and running, and with this in mind I’m combining the two to raise awareness of mental health and to raise funds for two mental health charities. The plan is to run the equivalent distance from St James park in Exeter, home to my beloved Exeter City, to the ground’s namesake in Newcastle, home to Newcastle united. Over the next 9 months my hypothetical route will see me run 483 miles and will take in various clubs’ grounds as landmarks along the way. All of my runs will be mapped via my GPS watch and the last 26.2 miles will be completed via the Southampton marathon on the 5th of September 2021. I will make regular updates on my route and grounds i have reached on my twitter account (@SWgroundhopper).

The two charities that I am raising funds for are Pete’s dragons, a local charity based here in Devon that provides support to those bereaved by suicide, and the nationwide mental health charity Andy’s man club, which is a male mental health charity that holds regular meetings to help men talk about their own mental health issues and break down the stigma attached around male mental health.

As someone who has and still does suffer with mental health issues, running and football have helped and continue to help me cope.

I know times are hard for everyone and any donations and support would be massively appreciated, I’ve never undertaken a challenge of this scale, time or distance before.

Thank you for reading

More info on both charities can be found on the following links:

Andy’s Man Club:

https://andysmanclub.co.uk

Petes Dragons:

http://www.petesdragons.org.uk