10 November 2020

In May of this year I decided to challenge myself to complete 100 miles of running in order to raise a minimum of £100 for MindSpace. I had recently started running 5ks thanks to the Run5 Donate5 Nominate 5 Challenge, and in the spirit of the approaching Mental Health Awareness week, I decided I would run 5k for May’s 31 days (roughly 100 miles) for a local mental health charity. After doing a little research I came across Mindspace and all the great work they had been doing in Stamford. I sent an email and immediately received a very helpful response from the team on how to organise the fundraiser.  

In October 2019, my sister reached out for help as she had been struggling with her mental health. She made the brave decision to leave university and took the year to work on things from home. She set up a blog and applied for another university course, which she is now currently studying and loves. I learnt a lot from her during this year on what it is like to suffer from anxiety disorder and the ways in which I could help. It was important for me to raise money for a local charity, as I wanted to do something for my own community. The empty high street when I came back from University served as a quiet reminder that although I was at home with my family, many others in the town lived alone and isolated unable to see theirs or anyone for that matter.

As I only really started running in March, this was definitely one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I broke the miles into chunks depending on how motivated I felt that day, with my shortest run at just 1 mile and the longest a marathon for my final run (my sister cycled alongside for moral support and fed me mini rolls). In total, the fundraiser raised £815 from 64 different donors, far exceeding the amount I had hoped to achieve. I am very grateful for the support I was shown and to the team at MindSpace for the work they do in our community.

If you’d like to raise money to support our work in Stamford, please take a look at the ready-to-go fundraising pages on our website. Please also let us know so that we can help to promote your efforts.