Mental health and Suicide Awareness

Hello Soldiers!

My name is Louis Hammond and I will be running a 1/2 marathon on October 27th around Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh in remembrance of my friend and to raise awareness around mental health.

2 years ago on October 27th 2022, I lost a friend to mental health.

This affected so many people in different ways. For me during the following year I struggled with severe anxiety and mild depression as I kept bottling up my thoughts. I would look towards playing rugby for some comfort as I would not be able to think about my problems. My mental health got worse after I suffered a severe head injury in September 2023 playing rugby - this subsequently meant that I could no longer play the sport I loved and also involved me missing the 1st half term off school. This is when I finally started speaking out to family as the thoughts were gradually getting worse and I was referred to a clinical psychologist who would help me over the next coming months.

I have now fully recovered from the bad place I was at 6-8 months ago. However, after reflecting on what I had been through, I came to the conclusion that the biggest issue I had was not being able to talk to people about the situation until it was getting outside of control. Now more than ever we have to start speaking about what is bothering us, particularly in our teenage years. I am a firm believer of the saying “a problem shared is a problem halved”.

For this reason and to remember my friend who lost his life not being able to speak out please join me in giving money to an amazing charity called the Young Minds Trust.

The Young Minds Trust is leading the movement to make sure every young person gets the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what. YoungMinds provides young people with tools to look after their mental health. They empower adults to be the best support they can be to the young people in their lives. And they amplify young voices to change the world we live in.

Thank you so much for any consideration in sponsoring me to do this and to my dear friend I hope I’m doing you proud ❤️