Dune London takes to the sky to support Mental Health UK

 

Mental Health UK is Dune’s dedicated Charity of the Year partner until 2024, and from the get-go, Dune has been keen to continue to develop mental health knowledge and awareness throughout their organisation, from their offices right down to their shop floors across the nation. Colleagues were keen to fundraise for Mental Health UK in active ways that would challenge their mental resilience, and this summer employees took part in sponsored skydives.

“Skydiving was always something I had wanted to do and I knew lots of people who had done it previously for charity. Being able to tick such a big dream off my bucket list, whilst raising money and awareness for mental health, was an amazing opportunity for me. It meant a lot to me once I realised how many people were willing to donate to the cause, too. Taking care of your mental health should be as much of a priority as taking care of yourself physically, and if ever necessary, just like how you would heal a broken bone, you need to take time to take care of any mental health struggles you might be facing. When I first got to the airfield I was definitely starting to feel nervous, even more so on the plane going up! But, once you have jumped out of the plane, the experience and the views are incredible and I would recommend it to everyone.

A lot of my donations came from Dune colleagues who were aware of the skydive and knew of others in the company doing it. Aside from this, I took to social media to share my QR code/link for people to donate, and many of my friends kindly shared it. This helped me to gain donations from lots of people, some of whom I didn’t even know personally! I was overwhelmed by the support and kindness of others.” – Laura 

"I think one of the key things people need to recognise is that your mental health is just as important as your physical health."

– Laura

“The end of 2021 was a hard time for me as I had just moved to a new area for a job (not my current one). Looking back, I wish that I’d have contacted a professional for support, or known more about support out there. I think it would have made things just a bit easier to deal with. I have also always wanted to do a skydive, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I think people are becoming a lot more open in terms of talking about their mental health, and I would just love for this to continue growing, so that it is just the same as talking about physical health! I found the experience amazing – even though I was nervous right up until actually flying through the sky. Social media was the way that I got all of my donations, as my friends and family shared the link to my page. People from work were also generous in their donations.” – Lewis