Hello everyone and welcome to my just giving page. Many of you will know I have been successful in gaining a place in The London Marathon this year. Although this was through the ballot, I wanted to raise some money for a charity that helps people in need of help, like someone very close to me.

This will be my first marathon and I have dreamt of completing London for as long as I can remember. Again, many of you will know I love running and have always ran, so with this, I am setting myself a target of a sub 4 hour time and have been training since November for this.

The Back Story….. The reason why I have chosen to raise money for Mind. Many of you won’t actually know - which is a big problem in itself, people not talking about mental health and the stigma’s that are still around it - that my dearest mum suffers from Bipolar disorder. It is something she has had to live with for the majority of her life and something that will never go away and can only be medicated. Growing up with her my whole life, I have seen first hand the struggles she has gone through. She has the kindest heart, will do anything for me and her family, devoted her whole life to bringing me up - which at times, will have been really hard for her - and therefore deserves only happiness. But from time to time, this in itself is a struggle and one I hate to see. Big and small things that happen in life are harder for people with Bipolar to cope with and a lot of people still don’t understand the disorder, often making references to it which don’t actually sit true to what a person with Bipolar actually goes through. Unfortunately, there is not enough funding in the NHS to properly support everyone, with wait times to see and speak to people often months long. So many areas shut down in recent years as there are simply not enough recourses. When someone needs help for mental health, they need it then, in that moment.

This is why mental health charities such as Mind are so important to help people, not only with Bipolar, but any type of mental health issue, which is in fact 1 in 4 of us. Even if we just raise awareness so we all feel comfortable speaking about how we are feeling and eliminating the negative stigma. On a positive note, this is definitely improving. I look back to being a teenager and would go to lengths to hide what my poor mum was going through, so much has definitely improved over the last couple of decades but we still need to do a lot more. Each and every one of us will know someone who needs help or it may be you. Let’s make sure the help is there to enable everyone to live a happier life - as we only have one.

Thank you for reading. Any donations are greatly appreciated, how ever small, it does all help. Please reach out as well if you need to.

Lots of Love. X