In March 2023, I’m  taking part in Expedition Limitless, a 110km snowshoe trek above the Artic Circle.

Why ?  A few reasons……..

A while back I enrolled on a weeks NLP course with Phil Quirk and have stayed in touch ever since. Phil happened to mention that Omina Mind was organising a trek across the Artic Circle to raise money for  a local mental health charity ( Isle Listen ) and help show how resilient we can be as individuals. It struck a chord with me for the following reasons below and I applied to take part. 

Mental health is close to me, I have friends and family that struggle daily.

A few years ago I lost one of my brothers as he took his own life.

Another family member struggles with mental health  issues and has done for some time. I am so proud of them and what they overcome and how they have turned their life around. They still struggle daily and without their partner, family and an excellent support of professionals wouldn’t be where they are now. 

Those that know me, know I’m a closed book (or so I’ve been told) and have never talked or opened up about what happened. 

I’ve always felt that I need to use my voice or platform to help others who have mental health issues, but never knew how as I had never dealt with my own situation. When I heard about Expedition Limitless, I felt this was my time to help others and perhaps help myself at the same time. 

To be able to raise funds for Isle Listen means a lot to me. To help towards providing funds for a local charity that provides early intervention of mental health in schools, also supports families, and training within the workplace. All for a great cause. 

For those reading this, if you know me you will know how hard it was for me to write the above and let people into my life a little.  In doing so I hope I can  raise funds to support Isle Listen that will help those in need. 

I know times are hard for everyone at the minute, if you are unable to donate please just share my post or attend one of our group events in the New Year. 

All the money raised goes directly to the charity.

Diane xx

ISLE LISTEN INFO :

Isle Listen is a mental health charitable organisation part of MCH Psychological Services, an Isle of Man registered charity with nearly 40 years experience providing psychological support.Our essential work is centred around mental health early intervention and prevention; helping to avoid the unnecessary escalation of mental health problems in young people.We have made progress during the 2021/22 academic year, to now be providing our mental health support and wide-reaching educational programme in all 6 secondary schools and 27 of the 33 primary schools on the Island, but there is still much to do. Our services are provided free of charge as we do not receive any government funding, thus relying on charitable fundraising.We aim to be a catalyst for change in the way that mental health is perceived on the Island and we are helping to empower the Islands young people with skills and emotional resilience to cope with the stresses and setbacks they will face throughout life.