Walking 100 miles for OCD anxiety

Hello my name is Amy and on the 1st-2nd of February I am going to be walking 100 miles (160km) to raise money for OCD ACTION.

Many of you will know that the last 2 years I have completed a January challenge. January 2023 I ran 5km every day for the entire month and raised £2500 for cancer research in honour of a dear friend who passed away. In January 2024 I ran 5km every day for the 1st week, 6km for 2nd week, 7km for 3rd week, 8km for 4th week and 10km for the last 3 days of the month and raised nearly £3000 for mental health.

This year I was trying to decide what to do every day but I decided to do a challenge at the very end of the month instead. The past 2 years have been very tough completing a run every single day while I was in school but this year would have been even more difficult as I attend performing arts college in London now so I don’t get home until 7pm and it would be an impossible challenge to complete. Instead I will be using the month of January to train for my walk that will be the first weekend of February.

I have chosen OCD ACTION as my charity this year as it is another charity that is very close to my heart as OCD is something I have been fighting since the age of 8. Not many people know what OCD truly looks like and aren’t aware of how it really affects people. Unfortunately I was one of these people that it has affected and still continues to affect every day. Most people believe it is just about having things looking nice and having things lined up in a certain way but it is so much more than that and I want to inform people of this. When I was in year 8 I wouldn’t leave my house for days at a time due to the fear of exposure to the outside air. I would refuse to go to school or get in my mums car because there are thoughts that go through our heads telling us bad things will happen to us or other people if we don’t complete certain rituals. It is a terrible thing that I have to live with every day but I went through months of therapy, not to cure it as there is no way it will every fully go away but just to help cope with it in different ways. Therapy enabled me to be able to leave my house and live my life again. It enabled me to face my fear of getting on a train, I now can get 6 trains every day to college and back, it is still a challenge to face every single day but it has got so much better in the past few years. There is so many more layers and details that I could add but for now all I can ask is that you support me leading up to the walk and do what you can to donate or even just send your support. I would love to help OCD ACTION to be able to provide other young children and adults the chance to live their lives again through the use of counselling.

Thank you.

More information about OCD ACTION: OCD Action is a national charity for people affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

We provide support and information to anybody affected by OCD, work to raise awareness of the disorder amongst the public and frontline healthcare workers, and strive to secure a better deal for people with OCD.