On the 27th of May (this month) – my best friend and I are going to run 10km together in the London Bupa 10,000. We are doing this in support of the UK mental health charity MIND.
Please support our cause and donate using this link - CLICK HERE – it is an online donation and only takes 2 clicks! Any amount at all is most appreciated!
Why support a mental health charity you ask?
Because as much as anyone likes to deny it, mental health issues are still a huge taboo and something that is kept hidden like a dark dirty secret and leads to discrimination and shunning when the truth “comes out”. The truth being that the person in question is simply ill and needs help. They are ill, they need a doctor or a therapist, they might need medication and they can be cured. Since when is that something to discriminate against?!
If someone is diagnosed with a broken leg – they go to a doctor, they go to a hospital, they have medical tests done, they need medication and then they need physiotherapy and training to get the full functionality of their leg back. When someone is diagnosed with a mental health disorder it is exactly the same.
Would you stop having contact or speaking with someone with a broken leg? Would you agree with shunning someone for a broken leg? Would you turn a blind eye when someone instigates vicious rumours about them and gossips about them behind their back? So why when it’s a mental health patient?
Whether we know it or not – every single one of us is close to someone affected by mental health issues - every 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year. And that’s not talking about the 450 million people worldwide that have been diagnosed…let alone the one’s un-diagnosed…
AND on top of that:
The UK has one of the highest rates of self-harm in Europe.
Suicide remains the most common cause of death in UK men under the age of 35.
Staff absence and lost productivity due to poor mental health management cost UK employers £26 Million every year.
Over 70% of prison population suffer from at least 2 or more mental health disorders that were never tended to in time.
Mind’s mission
“Our vision is of a society that promotes and protects good mental health for all, and that treats people with experience of mental distress fairly, positively, and with respect.“
The looong list of reasons to support mental health charity Mind goes on and on. No one has any second thoughts about donating money to cancer research, to schools in Africa or clean water in India…so why think twice when it comes to working on something that is so close to home and is such a gigantic problem which is affecting every single one of us – directly or indirectly?
