You don't need me to tell you how vital mental health support is, and how tough things are for so many people right now.

I decided to set a goal for myself of running a half-marathon this year, mainly because it is something I never thought I would be capable of doing. Up until a couple of years ago I had never run further than the bus stop, but post-Covid have been (slowly) increasing my run length to the point that a half-marathon no longer seems impossible.

The Royal Parks half-marathon takes place in a great (and very convenient) location, and at a time of year that hopefully means it won't be too hot or too miserably cold and wet! Plus October is far enough away to give me plenty of time to train...

I'm also going to use the opportunity to raise a load of money for the great work Mind does to support people experiencing mental health issues. Mind provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem, something that sadly that lack of government funding for years means we have to turn to charities like them to provide. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding, and do a lot of good. In particular:

- The Mental Health Act needs a lot of work. They're pushing for fundamental reforms to the outdated law in order to update it and reflect changes to our understanding of mental health.

- The care people get in mental health hospitals often isn't good enough, and we have all seen the deeply upsetting news stories about some of the many problems. They're fighting to raise the standard of inpatient care.

- One key initiative relates to government needing to fund young people's hubs – to make sure they have somewhere to go when they're struggling. Mind are campaigning to make sure they do.

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