we need bold, courageous and active supporters to help mental health research at York break new barriers and change lives for people suffering with mental ill-health. We need you!
In 2023 I had one of the best days of my year walking the Great York Walk with my son Clem - we chatted all the way around the route and this was precious time that we seldom have together. I was truly inspired by the fact his 11 year old legs could make it all the way around the 25 mile course. Well done Clem! This year I’m taking my 50 (something) year old legs and pushing myself a little further by doing the Great York Walk ( 25 miles around beautiful York and surrounding area which Clem is again bravely taking on) and then I’m running my first marathon, the York Marathon, in October. All in aid of the Mentally Fit York Fund.
Why?
This isn't totally selfless. As a woman going through the menopause with a body that’s changing shape, and feeling all of those horrible changes in hormones, I’m hoping that an exercise routine like the 26 week running schedule that I’ve put myself on will, hopefully, help some of those symptoms that I’ve noticed my ageing body going through. But I also want to see if I can do it. Finding the time between work, family and other things in life is proving hard (I'm only on week 3 at the time of writing this) but I’m determined to make it work and to find balance. Any advice from previous marathon runners is welcome.
But the main reason and key motivation for doing this, and for asking you to support me and Clem, is that one of my big regrets is I didn't ask my dad to go out for more walks with me. Dad retired very late in life as his work was everything to him. The transition from work to retirement was hard for my dad, like it is for many, and it triggered what I’ve now come to understand to be a sense of loss and a feeling of just simply not knowing who he was anymore. It sparked depression and then a spiral that he couldn't seem to get out of.
Dad was, shortly after his retirement and during this time of transition, diagnosed with lung cancer. The combination of these two big life-changing events didn’t make for as fulfilling and as happy a retirement as he and Mum may have hoped for (although it didn't make him any less of a great dad or grandpa).
I’m also doing this for all those dads (and mums) out there and hoping that, when we don't get the balance right, we take advice from the experts and try to learn more about managing mental ill-health and wellbeing. Here at York, where, every day I witness the incredible work that colleagues like the brilliant and passionate Lina Gega of the Institute of Mental Health Research at York are doing in this area in order improve the lives and care of anyone affected by mental ill-health issues.
Lina founded the Institute for Mental Health Research at York - which is in itself a bold and courageous task. And along with her colleagues, she is creating a community to build on the research taking place at York, across many disciplines, into preventative care and treatment for those affected by mental ill-health and wellbeing issues.
The Institute is pivotal to drawing together academic scholarship with external partners and to making our work accessible for the wider world. Some of this work is funded by the Mentally Fit York Fund and by taking part in the Great York Walk on 18 May 2024 and the York Marathon on 20 October 2024 I hope to raise £500 to support the work of our academic community, to help seed new avenues of research, and to support the next generation of mental health nurses through the Mentally Fit York Scholarship programme. The Fund also supports on the ground initiatives across our community. You can read more about the Mentally Fit York fund here.
What can you do?
I know that my reflections are a familiar story and not uncommon. These are everyday wellbeing challenges but, when we have an amazing research community that is working tirelessly to find ways in which to improve mental health outcomes and wellbeing, to support our students in their wellbeing and to find ways to take positive steps towards good mental healthy, why wouldn’t we want to support that? Please help if you can!
