Dedicated staff members Kelly Smith; Early Intervention Community Wellbeing Coordinator, and Nicola Harrison; Director of Children, Young People and Families Services set themselves the massive target of completing 200 miles between them and raising £200 for Tameside, Oldham and Glossop Mind as part of The Big 40km campaign! We're very proud!

Nicola and Kelly are both employees at TOG Mind and are both passionate about supporting mental health and wellbeing within their local communities. They both enjoy running regularly and use this as a tool to support in their physical and mental wellbeing.

After talking in the office Nicola and Kelly decided they wanted to challenge themselves to raise funds as part of TOG Mind's 40th Birthday!

• Nicola completed her 100 miles completely by running and tackled an incredible 20km run from our Glossop site through to our Ashton site, on Katherine Street, and finishing at Positive Steps in Oldham. 

• Running partner Kelly completed her 100 miles (surpassing her target by reaching 113 miles!) with a mixture of running, including four 10km runs as a team with Nicola, taking part in Park Runs and completing gym cardio circuits, body balance and Pilates classes at the gym and 34 ten minute home workouts.

The Big 40km challenge was put together by the team at TOG Mind to help celebrate 40 years of supporting the local community with their mental health and wellbeing. We started out as a mental health and wellbeing organisation, Tameside and Glossop Association of Mind, on the 27th February 1978 and in 2008 we re-registered as Tameside, Oldham and Glossop Mind as we expanded our services to Oldham.

Completing 100 miles is no easy task and we are so grateful to Kelly and Nic for completely stepping out of their comfort zone, taking The Big 40km challenge into their own hands and helping us to celebrate our birthday! They have reached their target and raised an incredible £200 to support the work of our dedicated staff and volunteers.

Kelly had this to say:

“I’m really proud of my achievement, I went out in all weathers from snowy days to sunny days and pushed myself to the gym when plagued by shin splints. It was great to do this challenge with my colleague taking on the sights of Tameside and raising money for our place of work that is close to our hearts. 

I have used running to improve my mental health and wellbeing for some time now and I am so pleased we raised our target amount and grateful to all who donated to the cause or encouraged us to complete”

Nic also wanted to share her experience:

“I’m really pleased I have been able to complete this challenge; it has motivated me to increase my fitness level and has enabled to me run farther than I ever have before.

As someone who really benefits from physical activity to keep myself mentally well I couldn’t be prouder to raise money for a charity which supports others in the community with their mental health and wellbeing. Thank you to everyone for your support and for donating to such a worthy cause”

Every year, more people are facing problems with their mental health. TOG Mind work to ensure that they can offer help to anyone that needs it. Engaging the community to take part in our challenges and activities is so important for us at Tameside, Oldham and Glossop Mind to not only raise vital funds for our services but to help us share what we can offer and sign post those individuals and their friends and families to what help they can access.

Thank you to over 20 staff, volunteers, and supporters currently taking part in The Big 40km, marathons, half-marathons, 10k’s, and treks!

Without your support and dedication, our work simply couldn’t continue!

To keep up to date with our 40th birthday celebrations, make sure to visit our website page where you can read more about all our fantastic supporters!

Jenny Higson, CEO at TOG Mind said:

“Thank you to both Nic and Kelly for completing such a mammoth distance between them! It is brilliant to see two of our staff members working together to raise awareness for looking after your own mental health and wellbeing, within our community.”

You can still donate to Kelly and Nic’s JustGiving page here and see all their amazing progress pictures!

If you’ve been inspired by this story and are interested in taking on a challenge for TOG Mind, or if you just want to donate, contact fundraising [at] togmind.org (subject: The%20Big%2040%20Enquiry) .

For more information about TOG Mind and the services we offer you can visit our website www.togmind.org or you can call us on 0161 330 9223 where we're always happy to help!