Help Winston’s Wish rebuild bereaved children’s lives

I’ve twisted both my ankles and badly bruised the sides of my feet, which means exercising for the foreseeable future is out.

Instead of pounding the pavements in the fresh Autumn air, I’m laid up on the sofa with an icy bottle of limoncello on my left foot and a just-as-cold bottle of vodka on my right foot (what can I say? We didn’t have any frozen peas in the freezer) in an attempt to take down the swelling.

And the worst part of it all is that the reason is totally self-inflicted: sadly, I didn’t injure myself through any over-strenuous exercising but because I decided it was a good idea to buckle up a sky-high pair of wedges, balance two heavy bags on my shoulders, hold my laptop in one hand, my iPhone in the other and then run down the corridor to the lesson I was about to teach.

In the past, I probably would have seen my injury as a good excuse to curl up with a good book and relax but now, with the reality of a 30-mile trek looming in front of me, all I’m feeling is frustrated.

Completing the walk for Winston’s Wish means so much more to me now than when I started out in June. Back then it was little more than a way of proving to myself that I could push through the pain barrier surrounding my brother’s suicide and move on with my life.

Thankfully that’s already happened – and sooner than I expected. The fog has finally cleared and random snapshots of 2009 and 2010 are starting to come back to me. Fittingly, they’re also in colour which is significant because, for a while, my only memories were black and white.

Now I’m much more focused on raising awareness of suicide and the vital work that Winston Wish is doing with bereaved children. You only need to look at the events of the past few weeks to see how crucial the charity is.

There are the two little girls Zeena and Zainab who were orphaned in the Alps massacre and who need swift professional help in order to help them overcome the trauma and go on to live normal lives.

Closer to home, there’s the stockbroker father who drove his teenage son back to boarding school in Dorset before shooting himself. That schoolboy, sitting his GCSEs, will also need support to help him come to terms with what has happened.

When you consider that one in five calls to Winston’s Wish’s national helpline is about suicide, you realise it’s a far from isolated case.

And who can forget the plight of David Langton-Gilks, the 16-year-old from Fontmell Magna, who lost his five-year battle with brain cancer last month?

His mother Sacha tweeted about her daughter insisting her brother played with her, telling him “you can rest when you’re dead”. Both she and her other brother also face the difficult task of learning to live with David’s death.

Walking across the South Downs no longer has anything to do with me and my own demons. No, these children are the real reason I’m determined to raise £2,000 for Winston’s Wish.

Sponsorship has stalled at £997, with no donations at all in the last three weeks, which means I’m still £1,003 away from hitting my fundraising goal.

So now, while I wait for my swollen, bruised ankles to return to normal, I’m swapping tactics. Since I can’t go out for a walk, I’ll be dedicating my time to ramping up the fundraising mission.

I know that times are tough. I know that people have mortgages to pay and children to feed and cars to insure and that sponsoring me to walk up and down hills for a whole day is not high on their list of priorities.

I understand that. I really do.

But, equally, this isn’t about me. It’s about helping the children and teenagers who know how devastating losing a brother, sister or parent can be. It’s about helping them express their grief so they don’t bottle it away and become disruptive at school, withdrawn or suffer from low self-esteem.

In short, it’s about helping bereaved children grow up to become resilient adults with rewarding lives of their own.

“I really admire what you are doing,” my friend emailed yesterday. “Sounds like you are putting in some huge miles.”

And it’s true. I was. Endomondo is on constantly and I’ve got Mario in on the act, too. The other day we walked to the burger joint for lunch but it was closed so instead of heading next door to the perfectly good bar, we ended up walking another three miles to get our fix of burgers, chips and breaded mushrooms.

Nevertheless, my friend’s comments made me smile because the way she writes, it seems she’s a couch potato whereas, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

She’s the one that is in training for an 18km hill run and is out in all weathers - unlike me. Shamefully, I tend to favour my bed rather than face a walk around town in the cold.

But as soon as I can put weight on my feet again, I’ll be lacing up my trainers and be out of that door even if it is pouring down with rain.

In the meantime, please donate here and help Winston’s Wish rebuild bereaved children’s lives.