This September I’ll be running the Great North Run on behalf
of CALM, The Campaign Against Living Miserably. I’ll be doing this run in
memory of Jamie Sexton, a close friend who sadly took his life early this year.
The money raised for CALM will help fund the charity which works to curb the
inexcusably high suicide rates which are so endemic in society today.

When I first signed up to do the Great North Run in January
2020, back when no one had thought twice about a global pandemic, I’d chosen
CALM as the charity I would run for. Male suicide had always been something I
knew was important, however it was never something I’d been affected by
personally and my own experiences around the topic were limited. I’d never lost
a loved one and suicide was never a topic of conversation with friends.

In May 2021, this had changed for both myself and I’m sure
so many others following the news that Jamie had taken his life. The
conversations I had that week will be some I won’t ever forget. Any
preconceived ideas on what experiencing and handling a loss is like were wiped away
and the grieving process will forever be ongoing, as I’m sure is the same for
so many. Jamie was taken from us far too early and the happy memories of
sharing a rugby pitch with him or messing around in and out of school are all I
and others have now, but with the help of CALM hopefully a few more families
and friends can be excused from experiencing this.

To try and explain the work that CALM does in one paragraph
would be an impossible task but everything they do is devoted to a common goal:
Every week 125 people in the UK take their own lives, 75% of all these suicides
are male. CALM aims to change this.