Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Covid -19 has had a massive impact on charities and communities

In "normal"  times I deliver ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and Mental Health First Aid Training as an Associate for Every Life Matters in Cumbria. An amazing charity doing amazing work- and who continue to do so in these challenging times.

The charity aims to reduce the number of suicides in Cumbria by helping people understand when someone is at risk, providing advice on how to support someone in crisis, and signposting to support services for those in crisis.

• On average 1 person a week is lost to death by suicide in Cumbria
• Cumbria’s suicide rates remain higher than the national average, and a disproportionate amount of those deaths are focused on the west coast of Cumbria.
• One in five Cumbrian residents will have thoughts of suicide, and one in fifteen will attempt suicide, at some point in their life

Unable to go hill walking due to Covid- I embarked on climbing a Lancashire or Cumbrian "Peak a Week"  on a Saturday using my stairs as my mountain and a way of keeping fit. So far I have climbed 6 summits reaching 3,065m - a total of 1179 flights of stairs.Phew!!

As I'm "Shielding" it'll be a while til I am back in the hills so... I have decided to extend my " Peak a Week" stair challenge to climb the height of Everest in total and raise money for Every Life Matters. At 8,848m that's a total of 3,402 flights of stairs...just 2,223 to go then!!  Using the heights of 13 local peaks I will summit Everest by mid August.

If you'd like to sponsor me - know that the money is going to supporting the amazing work this charity does. Please visit their website for more information but..

£10 would fund a community member to do suicide alertness training to enable them to recognise the signs that someone is at risk and get them to the support they need.

£20 would help reach a 1,000 people through the suicide prevention social media campaign across Cumbria

£100 would pay for a teacher  to  do the ASK training- Assessing for Suicide in Kids which helps school staff recognise and support young people.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you so much for visiting my page. Stairs here I come!