Earlier this year, on the 10th of February, I was preparing for what I always perceived to be the biggest rugby match of the year - England vs Wales. The next thing I knew, two police cars, along with my parents and my younger sister, Rosie, turn up at my university house in Bath to tell me that my brother had taken his own life that morning, aged 22.  Never in a million years would I have ever envisaged this happening.  Ted was fortunate enough to have a great group of friends and a close and loving family. He had likeability and a special aura about him that even strangers were often in awe of. Of course, I am biased as his proud little brother, but he was one of those guys who, on the surface, had absolutely everything going for him; he was intelligent, a talented sportsman and was always the life and soul of every situation. I’m sure to some (including me at times), it was frustrating that whatever he put his hand to he was good at, although his humble nature made it slightly more bearable. Having graduated from Bristol, Ted moved to Swansea to study medicine with the aim of becoming a doctor. The topic of mental health and suicide is something that I now immensely struggle to hear about or discuss. The majority of the time I find myself choosing to shut myself off or remove myself from certain situations as I simply cannot comprehend what has happened and I refuse to believe the truth. Ted and I coexisted and since his passing, it feels as if everything good in this world has vanished.  After what has and always will be the worst year of my life, you would think it could not get much worse. However, a few weeks ago, one of mine and Ted’s oldest rugby mates at Monmouth RFC also took his own life. As one of my friends recently said “When you lose someone you love to suicide, as opposed to, say, old age or some sort of illness, something strange happens to your brain. The first reaction, at least for me, was one of total denial.” How can it be that the guy who everyone looked up to and aspired to be can get to this point? It is tricky for people to empathise with mental illness as opposed to physical illness as it is often a lot harder to see. I wake up every day struggling to make sense of what has happened and that is me, his brother, who supposedly knew him inside out.  So, if I cannot understand it, how can I ever expect anyone else to? It was only the night before that we were on the phone to each other having our weekly rugby chat before the highly anticipated rugby match. He seemed completely fine, laughing and joking, showing no signs that this would be the last time I would speak to him. As many people say, “we are put on this planet to survive” and people, for the most part, will do whatever it takes to do that. However, when the unthinkable happens and someone takes their own life there is not only a huge degree of devastation, but also a number of unanswered questions. I am well aware that mental health is a taboo subject for many, but the statistics in this country on suicide are harrowing, particularly for young males. I would be lying if I didn't say that prior to the loss of Ted, I would hear about these awful statistics in the news, hang my head in disbelief and sympathy for the individual and the families affected, but after a few minutes go back to leading the happy life of Max Senior.   Since the tragic loss of Ted, my family and I decided to set up the Ted Foundation to honour Ted, with the expressed wish of trying to reduce the stigma attached to mental health. Young men can be completely blindsided whether it is a traumatic event, in the case of Ted, or depression that will not leave. The foundation has already raised an unbelievable amount of money and that is credit to Ted who spent a large part of his life helping others and working for charities. I do believe that discussions relating to mental health are beginning to improve, but when you consider that suicide is the most likely cause of death for men under 45, the enormity of this issue could never be more real. On October 17th, myself and five of my best friends are cycling from the Welsh border town of Monmouth (where Ted, Rosie and I went to school) to Amsterdam - a mere 400-mile trip. Jonny, Jacopo, Tom, Mikey and Hamish, all of whom knew Ted, have supported me since that indescribably horrific day back in February and I am eternally grateful that they will be cycling alongside me on this tribute ride. Living without the most important and influential person in my life seems unthinkable and intolerably scary. I can say, first hand, that the pain of losing someone through suicide is beyond unthinkable and at times unbearable – to the point that you cannot even physically move, eat or sleep. The Ted Foundation hopes to contribute to reducing the frightening statistics associated with male suicide by working alongside medical schools and universities, so please please consider donating a few pounds to a very worthy cause. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

Will Hillier

Charlie Griggs

Hannah Tuffley

James Young

Bronwen Hillier

Natalie Kelly

Ellie Howard

Seb Ward

Sophie Bradshaw

Megan Edwards 

Chris George

Emma de Waal

Amy George

Lewis Chapman

Rachel McCann

Kieran Chandler

Briony  Waycott 

Katharine Patterson

Lou Normand

Issac Phang

Cycle to Amsterdam for Ted

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

be_supporter_comments_enabled_supported_funds

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Enter your donation forCycle to Amsterdam for Ted