“GLOW felt like such a safe and understanding community” – Steph’s experience fundraising
The people who fundraise for us, often are living with mental health conditions or know someone who is. That’s why we aim for our events to be a safe space where people can be their full selves and feel part of a community. Hear from Steph as she tells us about her recent experience participating in our event, GLOW.
“I heard about Mental Health UK’s GLOW fundraising event through a friend, and I knew straight away that I wanted to take part! I had always wanted to raise money for a charity and this seemed like a good place to start. It’s a fantastic cause that’s close to my heart, and walking 12 miles was a big enough deal for me to ask for donations, but it also wasn’t too difficult or unrealistic to achieve.
I feel so strongly and passionate about mental health. I feel that the world is slowly becoming more accepting of people’s challenges and differences, but there’s still a long way to go. There is still so much stigma and ignorance towards people with mental health issues, and yet it’s so common to be affected by them. I don’t think I know anyone who isn’t affected by poor mental health in one way or another. You really never know who is having a tough time. I have experienced symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder for 10 years, and my boyfriend has Schizophrenia, so I understand the complexities of mental illness well. We both naturally mask our symptoms a lot of the time as our conditions have so many harmful stereotypes. Unless you live through it, or love someone who deals with it, you don’t know how painful it is to live with something you can’t control.”
– Steph"Everyone deserves support, and part of the reason I wanted to raise money was to enable more people to access the help that they need."
“As part of my mental health, I deal with unstable and extreme emotions, and it’s exhausting. We are both lucky to have people close to us that we can talk to, but not everyone has that. The walk itself was an amazing experience. Everyone was there for their own reasons and it was so nice to talk openly to strangers without judgment and to hear people’s stories. It felt like such a safe and understanding community, and we had fun and raised money for charity at the same time. I already can’t wait to participate in next year’s event!”
