Against Suicide in Young Men and Women

Hi everyone,

My name is Ben, I am a 19-year-old looking to raise some money to help out with suicide prevention and 100% of all funds raised will go to the charity MIND. The reason I have chosen MIND as my charity is not only to raise awareness of getting help if someone is struggling with mental health problems but also to donate to a charity that will benefit and improve the lives of people who have been through mental health problems.

The main reason I am trying to raise money is to help people who have been struggling and need someone to talk can get the required help and hopefully not place more families and friends who have endured the pain and confusion like mine has. Therefore donating to a charity that can help and provide the support that people may need to hopefully reduce to number of deaths caused by suicide.

I wanted to do this challenge is that I want to help people stop taking the last way out of life at a young age and get the help they need and deserve. The other reason I am doing this challenge is that on April 21st 2019, my cousin Mitch Collins unfortunately ended his own life at the young age of 16. I was only 13 at the time of his passing, and it affected me a lot later in life, as I was not able to fully process the full effects that suicide can have on you and the family around you. As I grew up I realised that the fact he used suicide as a getout at such as young age is something I always wondered about.

As I have been over in Australia, one of my mates ran 2024km in 2024 and as I am naive and stubborn I thought to myself that I thought I could do it so I am now running 2025km in the whole year of 2025, which works out to 39km a week (almost a marathon a week). I am always up for a challenge and this is something I will get right into. Hopefully, this can get the support and raise to help improve and prevent more deaths from suicide so fewer people have to go through what I have.

I would be appreciative of any support that could be given to this cause. I will be giving weekly and monthly updates as I continue this journey.

Thank you for reading this.

Ben Clarke