Throughout the month of May, I am going to be running 1 Mile everyday to raise money for the amazing charity that is Oxfordshire Mind.

There are so many reasons to take on this challenge and I'm so excited to be able to commit to something like this and share my story with you:

From a very young age I have struggled significantly with my mental health, predominantly a severe form of OCD with other challenges being added along the way. OCD is a very challenging and extremely debilitating illness to live with and it's been something that has caused some extreme lows for me in my life. Throughout time, life got harder and harder and I found myself stuck in a cycle of self hate and self harm that became life controlling to say the least. I think for me, the thing I lacked the most, was hope. I see this in many people who struggle with their mental health - a belief that, no matter how much you are told things will get better, the desperately low/anxious/sad/helpless/guilty feelings will never go away. But recently I have found hope. I have had a love for sport and exercise throughout my life and at my worst period of my mental health struggles, I lost this love. I became extremely unfit and overweight and this contributed to the self hate spiral I was stuck in - I genuinely thought my life was forever going to be spent feeling horrific. Recently, I set myself the challenge of running couch to 5k and having committed to and completed this, I have proved to myself that I can achieve anything I set my mind to.

I have chosen this challenge as if I think back to this time last year, running a mile for me would have been impossible. Now, it is something I can do and most importantly something I enjoy doing. I wanted to set myself a realistic goal but also something that would be a challenge and I would have to fully commit to doing. It might not seem like a lot to some people but for me this would be a huge achievement so I'm very excited to be able to take it on.

During my time in Oxford, at Brookes university, I have used various different resources, such as Oxford Safe Haven, to help me when in a crisis, as well as receiving some support with my mental health generally through the Oxford AMHT team. Therefore, I thought Oxfordshire Mind would be the perfect charity to raise money for and I hope that the money raised can go to helping people who find themselves in a similar situation that I was in.

I am so happy to be able to say that I am finally in a place where I am pretty much okay with being me. I no longer struggle through everyday simply just surviving but I am now living my life and enjoying doing so. Hope is real and it does get better - words i've been told so many times and never believed but I am now living in the reality of these words. Thank-you to the many people who have helped me on my journey. Any donation of any amount would be so hugely appreciated and for anyone who wants to join me on a mile one day, drop me a message😁

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and I can't wait to get going with this.