Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On Monday it marks 9 years since my Mum passed away. It’s fair to say I was a total Mummy’s boy - with her equally to thank and blame for much of my sense of humour, footballing ability, perspective on life, morals and much much more.

My Mum was easily one of the kindest, funniest, loyal, passionate people that I am likely to ever meet, and I still hear lovely stories about her to this day, which serves as the best reminder of the person who she was. Since her passing, I spent the first 7 years almost doing my best to avoid the fact she is no longer with us and certainly not to talk about some of the illnesses that impacted her & her life. I’d like to change this. So, this post is essentially a commitment to myself to ensure by this time next year I’ve completed a charity event in memory of my Mum and the two charities which I hold close to my heart.

The event I am looking at doing will be swimming Coniston waters in the Lake District. The swim is over 5 miles open water swim & as someone who has never actually ran 5 miles in my life, let alone swam it, I believe it should be a good challenge which will involve a lot of training over the next 8 months.

The charities I am going to be raising money for are Mind - The mental health charity & Nacoa (The National Association For Children Of Alcoholics) - Helping everyone affected by their parents drinking. Why these two charities?  Well sadly as I got older I soon realised that all wasn’t quite right with my Mum. Her drinking started becoming beyond excessive and her mental health deteriorated rapidly to the point where visits from the emergency services were often, search parties happened, prolonged hospital stays and even trips to mental hospitals to visit her upon being sectioned weren’t uncommon. There wasn’t anywhere to turn as a 13-year-old, I certainly didn’t know there was specific charities out their who, at worse could have reassured me that this wasn’t unique to me. Sadly JustGiving only allows you to raise money for one charity so I’ll be donating all proceeds from this to Nacoa as the lesser known charity and making a contribution to mind myself.

My Mum was a courageous woman who essentially was a product of her circumstances & environment. I’d have given anything to have helped her be on a different path but that was a path created before I was born. Despite all the sadness that these illness’s brought to myself & family, I still only have overwhelming positive thoughts and memories of my Mum. I know the idea of me complaining about an early start to train in a freezing sea would have provided endless amusement for her. I know she was bold and honest enough to support me being so candid about my own experiences and I know for sure she would be proud of what I am doing.

So yeah, I’ve created a JustGiving page and it would mean everything to me if you would consider donating and if you aren’t able to donate, to consider increasing awareness of the charities that I’m backing.