Why I'm running for Mind

 The mental health charity Mind have set a challenge starting from today to run 27 miles in 27 days across the month of March in the hopes of raising both money and awareness for the importance of student mental health. If any of you have been a student at University you'll understand the immense pressure felt and projected onto students in the higher education environment. Worth is linked inexplicably to grades, comparison to fellow students is a daily occurrence, you constantly put yourself down about all the things you're NOT doing and you're only as happy as your last assignment mark. On top of this its your first time living away from home, being self sufficient and insecure students around you can project their own insecurities, making it a hugely toxic environment to be in. This leaves so many students feeling incredibly low. They have to deal with all of this on top of the backgrounds they have come from and what they may be dealing with outside of their university walls. Knowing this is just the beginning of your adult life and it's meant to 'the best time of your life' adds an additional impossible expectation and pressure that can result in all types of mental health struggles forming. 

We need to take care of our students. They're brave enough to move out as teenagers and make the conscious decisions to better their lives and build career paths for themselves and so they deserve all the support we can provide. 

During my first degree in Oxford, I was incredibly low and lonely. My first year flatmates bullied and belittled me, made me feel beyond unwelcome in my own home to the point where I stopped taking care of myself in many ways. Additionally, I found I was very isolated on my course. Other students flocked to the first people they locked eyes with during Fresher's week and then decided in cult like ways 'sorry, we've made our friends, you were just too slow and there's no room here for you'. I was left with no one. No one wanted to know me. For the first few months of University, the only person who would really talk to me as a middle aged student who had also been isolated from the pack, purely because of her age. 

In my second year, it only got worse. 

A lot of the friends I have in my life now have the courage to speak freely about their personal mental health struggles and how the university atmosphere unfortunately amplified them. I will always admire their bravery and hope other students will be able to do the same for one another. 

Without going too far into my own story and struggles I'll just say- without the free counselling service at my University I would be a very different person. My counsellor frequently referred me to Mind resources and once I was strong enough I actually ran my own poetry exhibition and open mic night on the theme of Mental Health with the support and resources of the Brookes Poetry Centre. This is one of the proudest achievements of my life. Students spoke, sharing their personal poetry who had never even admitted to their friends they write poetry or that they have ever struggled with their mental health before. It was a very emotional, touching evening that has stayed with me ever since. I knew in that moment I was never going to stop trying to raise awareness and deconstruct the taboos surrounding mental health. 

This is the pic you'll find on my fundraising page. 

And so, here we are. Despite having not been on a run for the cold months we've just found ourselves trapped in, I will be running 27 miles in 27 days in the hopes people that know me will feel they are a little bit less alone and that there are people who genuinely understand and care they are struggling right now. I'm hoping to raise £100 for Mind which will be enough for mind to produce another 1000 booklets about mental health and provide that resource to students out there who may be really needing to see that support. 

If you have the means, I would be incredibly honoured and grateful for your donation. Mind take custom donations meaning you can donate as little or as much as you would like. The link to my fundraising page can be found here:  https://givepenny.com/alisharaggatt_27_27