Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

In February 2016 my good friend and work colleague, Doug Sommerfield passed away.

Following his retirement, struggling with loneliness and health issues, and just four months into what should have been a happy retirement, Doug took his own life.

This had a major impact on my mental health, with so many questions "had I done enough?", "had I missed the signs?", however the main recuring question "could I have prevented this?"

Struggling to process this, I reluctantly tried to throw myself into training for a 50 mile time challenge run I had entered (why is a story for another time)

What I wasn't expecting, during this training was how it helped the healing process, and allowing time to reflect on my life.

Although already a long distance trail walker, I had never run since my school days, not even a 5k prior to this, and managed the 50 miles in 10 hrs 20 mins and I was hooked.

Many miles and events have passed since then, hell off a lots of ups and downs, with some tears and laughter along way. Each mile brings new memories, but you can always run with memories of those who have passed away in your life, to help you along the way.

Physically the Ultra events are hard on the body, and equally as hard on the mind. This period of my life has made me mentally even stronger than I thought I was and has been a huge help during times where I've wanted to give up in some events.

The question will never fully be answered, but I believe having a better understanding of mental health back then, and knowing what support was out there may have helped for a little while, and that's something I have to live with now.

Had I know back that that charities like Racing Welfare were about to offer Doug support things may have turned out differently.

Hence why therefore my next adventure, 200 miles, I will be supporting Racing Welfare, a registered charity supporting the workforce of British horseracing.

Details of the 200 mile run can be found here.

https://www.centurionrunning.com/races/winter-downs-200-2023

If you have made it this far thanks again for taking the time to read my story, and if you have kindly donated after reading, your a super star.

RIP Doug Sommerfield 4th August 1950 - 9th February 2016

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