Kate’s Story: 19 people Walking Multiple Marathons for Manchester Mind – in January 2021

We decided to walk multiple marathons for Manchester Mind because we have all been touched by mental health issues in different ways whether it be anxiety, depression, panic attacks, addiction, psychosis, suicide or grief.

We all live in Manchester and wanted a focus for January 2021. Over Christmas I suggested walking marathons in this first month of the year and the idea quickly gained steam.

One of the youngest members of our group lost her Dad at the end of 2020 to suicide after previously losing her Mum to cancer earlier in the same year. She has talked about her Dad as her ‘best friend’ and losing her ‘best friend’ in December 2020 to his battle with mental health was extremely heart breaking. Her Dad will always be in her heart and she wants to honour him and celebrate his life by doing something positive for Manchester Mind.

We want to help reduce the stigma around mental health issues by raising awareness and money for Manchester Mind. Together we as a group believe we can get through things and create the change to make our society a better place.

We have walked in snow, hail and rain and as we come to the last week in January some of our group have walked as many as 4 marathons already. In addition, during this period of uncertainty and lockdown we have all realised the value for our own physical and psychological health of going for a walk with a trusted friend.

You can sponsor Kate and her group here