In May 2013, my boyfriend Tom and I are planning to walk from London to Brighton in aid of Mind, the mental health charity. It's a 100km endurance walk and, while I'm not usually totally sure of people doing things like this for charity (I mean, some of the funds are going to offset the cost of running the event - why not give it all to charity?), this is for me both about raising funds and raising awareness of Mind. And mental health in general, for that matter. The walk starts in London on the 25th May and finishes on the 26th in Brighton; what would have been my Dad's 70th birthday. Appropriate and yet entirely co-incidental.
Many of you will be aware that, in 1999, when I was nine, my father died. A recently retired airline pilot with a loving family and plenty of friends, you'd have thought he had everything he wanted. But depression isn't that choosy and, on the 19th April, he took his own life. Everyone I've ever spoken to who knew him said what a brilliant person he was - kind, calm, professional. The sort of person I can only ever hope to be. I miss him every single day and the pain doesn't get any less, you just learn to live with it. But it means that any single thing I can do to stop someone else from going through it all is worthwhile. Mental health isn't as obvious as physical illness but it doesn't make it any less important. People are still somewhat reticent to discuss it too, and that needs to change.
It makes me sad that Tom never got to meet my Dad but, nevertheless, he wants to walk with me. Anyone else who'd like to be part of the team is more than welcome!
A link to, undoubtedly, a Justgiving page will be stuck in here when we've booked our places :-)
