My first half marathon - raising funds to support the social and emotional wellbeing of young people

I'm running the half marathon for Khulisa. An incredible charity that I have the privilege of leading everyday. We support young people's mental health and wellbeing in schools by providing a therapeutic programme based on creative arts and neuroscience. We also provide trauma-informed support to teachers and parents/carers. This is with the aim to increase social and emotional wellbeing and mental health and reduce school exclusion. We believe this is what will close the disadvantage gap and make education a place that is accessible and inclusive for all young people.

I am so passionate about our work. I struggled in school and difficult circumstances alongside undiagnosed learning needs led to me thinking that I couldn't or wouldn't achieve anything. The power of an incredible teacher, who took the time to understand what was going on, and who supported me despite my withdrawal and outbursts, made me realise that I could be something. I spent over 10 years then working directly with young people who had been excluded from the system and/or society, helping them to also develop that self-belief, and the love and compassion for themselves that is often lacking because of constant rejection from systems that are supposed to nurture and support development. This journey was life changing, the young people I worked with taught me so much and I eventually moved into leadership because they inspired and encouraged me to stand up and make a wider change.

Which takes me to Khulisa .. I feel so proud to now lead a charity that does something that I feel I really needed and that I would have felt proud and encouraged young people I've worked with to go on. It's amazing to see and hear about the impact of our programmes- to know that we are making a difference, and to know this from the young people directly. (Feel free to check out our evidence online, statistically significant changes!!!)..
I will be running for them, I will be running to represent them and I will be running to raise funds to support more incredible young people - so get giving and every little helps, but also intensive therapeutic work is expensive soooo the more the better haha!! :)

(And for some context - I hate running, I've never ran more than a 5k, I am a weightlifter through and through - but as I'm physically able to - I thought I can't be asking others to run the half marathon without giving it a go too!!)

(And finally - photo is me on a Khulisa programme with young people where we created masks as one of our creative arts activities understanding the different parts of yourself)

Thankyou everyone for reading and for your support!!!