Jack Goldsmith
Jack's Journey to 100 and London Marathon 2025
Fundraising for Samaritans
Story
Journey to 100 and London Marathon 2025 💫
Thank you for taking the time to visit my fundraising page; I’m raising money for Samaritans and their mission to help as many people as possible believe in tomorrow. A world in which fewer people die by suicide.
As a listening volunteer for Bromley and Orpington Samaritans, I’ve had the privilege of listening to and supporting callers in some of their darkest moments. Being a listening volunteer was described as “imagining that you are jumping into the bottom of a very deep well and sitting there, in the darkness, with the caller, who cannot see their way out”. There’s no particular reason for why people find themselves in these situations, anyone can find themselves in a place in which they are struggling to cope. I’ve spoken with so many different individuals; they might be feeling lonely, scared, upset or in crisis. There is so much power in listening and conversation; everyone deserves that space to talk.
I love the quote from Charlie Mackesy in ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’: “Asking for help isn’t giving up … it’s refusing to give up”. Callers are asking for help and I think that’s one of the most brave and courageous things that any person can do.
Every 90 minutes, someone dies by suicide in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Samaritans respond to a call for help every ten seconds – there is no judgement or pressure – just a person, at the end of the phone, waiting to listen. The service is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are 22,000 volunteers around the country. Funds will help Samaritans to work towards their vision by recruiting more volunteers, reaching those groups who may currently struggle to access Samaritans and campaigning to make suicide prevention a national priority.
In 2023, I ran the London Marathon for Samaritans and ran 24km every day for 7 days to highlight Samaritans’ 24/7 presence. This year, I’ve set myself a much bigger psychological and physical challenge than I’ve ever done before.
The challenge starts in July with a 100km run in the Peak District. 2 months later, I’ll be completing my second ultra, a 100 mile race around Snowdonia, running for up to 42 hours, not sleeping, navigating a mountain day and night and spending a large amount of this time alone … for a city boy from London, this has been a big learning curve already and I’m sure there’s massive learning to come … who even knew that wild horses were a thing?! The last race I’ll be completing as a part of this fundraiser is in April 2025, where I’ll run for Samaritans in the London Marathon!
On a serious level, I’m completely locked into these goals. I’ve never worked so hard for anything in my life before (1773km run so far this year) and I will do what I have to do to make it happen.
I’m obsessed about the power of the mind, to get you out of bad places and to manifest the good places too. Running for Samaritans, I hope I can draw on just a small amount of the enormous bravery and strength that callers show when they call the service and open up, are vulnerable and ask for help.
Please support where you can, everything counts!
Peace and love,
Jack x