On 12th September 2020, Oli Turney and Georgia Nicklin set off on their ‘Sunrise to Sunset Walk’ across London. Supported by several friends throughout the day, they walked a total of 40 miles in 11.5 hours to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. Through their efforts, the team raised an incredible £2,800 for the Mindstep Foundation.
“We were both keen to do something that was original, but something that would still challenge us. Approximately 800,000 people take their lives every year – a staggering one person every 40 seconds. It made perfect sense to us that 40-miles of something would be a meaningful challenge. As we are both currently working and living in London, we decided to focus our challenge around the city and walk a ‘sunrise to sunset’, east to west route via some of London’s most popular and busy areas.
We had practiced 10 and 20-mile walks in the lead up to the big day, and completed them with ease! 30 miles is a different ball game and it was at that point when we started to feel the pain and lose speed. Having our friends there throughout the day made it all the more easier, and kept us motivated! Georgia has come away very lightly from it all while Oli is still suffering a tad from shin splints!
Thank you to everyone who has donated to this amazing cause, we’ve been completely overwhelmed by the level of support and donations received smashing our original target!”
– Oli Turney and Georgia Nicklin
The Mindstep Foundation would like to say a huge thank you to the team for undertaking this epic challenge on behalf of the charity.
On World Mental Health Day, Mindstep is sharing a few tips on how we can look after our mental health and wellbeing every day.
Now more so than any other time in recent history, we are beginning to understand the importance of mental health and just how necessary it is to ensure its wellbeing. To a great extent, the entire world has experienced changes in their day to day lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is so challenging for everyone with peoples’ lives being significantly impacted in various different ways. Take advantage of the many different resources that can help you or someone you know is struggling.
Here are 6 tips to improve your mental wellbeing:
On Saturday 22nd August 2020, Max’s cousin Zak and his partner Natalie took on Europe’s Virtual Toughest Mudder completing an incredible 73km within the 12-hour time limit. As if the continuous running was not challenging enough, the team also had to overcome 9 additional ‘obstacles’ including hand-tied press-ups, shower squats, and various activities involving a watermelon! Through this awesome achievement, the team have also raised nearly £1,500 for the Mindstep Foundation. You can still sponsor here.
“We knew that some of the obstacles later in the race would slow us down significantly, so we chose to take advantage of our energy levels and got the first 4 laps completed well before midnight. The mental battle really took hold on lap 5, but we kept on running. Our strategy was simple: just keep going.
The hardest part was the house being the pit stop to fuel up/prepare equipment for the obstacles; we could not succumb to the desire to sit down for five minutes because we knew we may nod off and not get back up! Some other competitors were taking strategic naps but we were focused on trying to complete as many laps as we possibly could.
As the sun came up, injury and exhaustion were winning and we were reduced to walking our last lap. Having conquered 9 laps – some even carrying a watermelon! – and 9 obstacles, we were already proud of our achievements. To find out that we positioned first out of the female and fourth out of the male competitors was a bonus!
Above all, we were proud to run for Max and for Mindstep. Thank you to all who donated to the cause.”
Zak Thomas
The Mindstep Foundation is hugely grateful to Zak and Natalie for undertaking this epic challenge in aid of the charity.
This month, Mindstep sadly marks two years since the passing of the brilliant Max Davies, in whose memory the Mindstep Foundation was established.
Mindstep began as a Go Fund Me page, primarily as an outlet for loved ones at a loss following Max’s passing. It is thanks to the enormous generosity of those who donated then, and those who have continued to support Mindstep, that Mindstep was able to achieve registered charity status this year. Over the past two years, we have raised £70,000 towards the charity’s aim of funding mental health research, awareness and support.
Supporting research into suicide prevention has always been one of the principal aims. Suicide is a hugely sensitive, complex issue with a multitude of causes and the very nature of a death by suicide means we can never fully know the reasons behind it. In 2019, Max’s mum, Tracey, reached out to Professor Rory O’Connor, leader of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory (SBRL) at the University of Glasgow. Since establishing a partnership with the SBRL, Mindstep now funds a PhD researching the causes of suicide, and more recently, research into the effects of Covid-19 on mental health. The below video of Professor Rory explains why research into suicide is so important.
As Mindstep moves forward, they will continue to support this vital research. The charity is also looking for ways in which they can support those bereaved by suicide, as well as mental health awareness workshops and support groups.
Mindstep as Max’s family, their mission is to take steps, however small, towards ensuring that no one suffers the loss of a loved one to suicide. We hope that this work will be a testament to the incredibly kind, generous and funny boy that gave so much in his short time.
Watch Professor Rory O’Connor’s video here: https://mindstepfoundation.com/news/two-years-of-the-mindstep-foundation
Lloyd Davis, Managing Director of Your Conveyancing Services and The Conveyancing Academy has shared his expertise on the importance of taking care of your employees and how by investing in them, they, in turn, will help your business to grow.
Video highlights include:
-Importance of staff to grow your business – Often the most difficult process to growing a business
-Staff benefits all-important – Working from home, holidays, excellent training
-Staff welfare programmes – Good HR team, understanding management and counselling, in house provisions
-Training – Recruit and retain new staff
-Apprenticeships are now fully funded – 100% Government funding until January 2021. CLC Level 4 and 6 Academy apprenticeship courses
Watch The Training Academy video here:
Many legal practices have in house trainers who would benefit from the Academy structure and courses. The Academy Team are talking to a number of practices about the possibility of working with them and employing – paying for their in-house training services.
The Conveyancing Academy know about conveyancing training. They are the only company exclusively specialising and practising in conveyancing.
If the Academy training programme can be of assistance to you, or if you would like to discuss any of the video highlights with Lloyd, please contact the Conveyancing Academy Team on 01633 261295 or email info@conveyancingacademy.com
www.conveyancingacademy.com/government-funding/
At 6am on Saturday 18th July 2020, brothers James and Will Smith and Rudi Lewis set off on a mammoth Backyard Ultra Marathon completing 100 miles in just 24 hours. James and Rudi ran 4.2 miles on the hour every hour and Will completed the same distance on the rowing machine. The team have managed to raise over £4,900 so far which has very kindly be matched by James’s employer, Convey Law, bringing the total to just under £10,000. This money will cover Mindstep’s next instalment to the University of Glasgow for a PhD in suicide research.
“The challenge started well with many people turning up throughout the day to run laps and show support. After 16 hours, and as darkness descended on us, our bodies started to hurt! Then, at 11pm, the rain came. In our minds, we were determined to complete 100 miles in 24 hours and nothing was going to stop us. We battled on throughout the night with more incredible people coming out to run with us in the dark and wet. These were the most testing hours, and we were grateful to see fresh faces! At 4am, Rudi said to me “it’s always darkest just before dawn”, and with that daybreak came and lifted our spirits. We were joined on the final lap by the Davies family and other supporters, who spurred us on to finish the challenge.
We were overwhelmed by the support shown for us, but more importantly, people were there to support the charity. On each lap, we discussed mental health with different people who were instantly engaged with the issues surrounding mental health and depression, as everyone is affected or knows someone who has been affected in some way.
We have raised over £4900 for the foundation which is very generously being matched by my employer Convey Law. We are so grateful for those who supported us on the day and to those have donated to the cause.”
James Smith
The Mindstep Foundation is incredibly grateful to James, Will and Rudi for undertaking this impressive challenge in aid of the Mindstep Foundation. You can still sponsor the team here.
The team effort was also featured in the local newspaper, you can find a link to the article here.
