Aodan Donnelly 24 from Edinburgh will run a 10K every day this month to raise money and awareness of the mental health charity SANE.

The trainee accountant wants to highlight young people’s mental health and will cover 310km which is more than seven marathons in August as a fundraising challenge.

Aodan Donnelly

The Morgan Stanley trainee is embarking on the challenge to highlight mental health among young people, after reading more and more tragic stories in the media of lives lost.

Aodan says: “From reading things recently on social media, and having my eyes opened to unfortunate situations more, I have realised how much of an issue mental health is today, especially in young people.

“Although I feel talking about these issues has come on a lot, I still feel a lot more has to be done. I also feel a lot of the out pour on the issue and people showing concerns only happens after a tragedy rather than speaking about the issue in general.

“Educating people on the issue has to become normal and not a taboo, so that we can stop a tragedy from happening.”

Aodan is looking forward to the start of his challenge on 1st August, and is collecting donations on his JustGiving page.

He says: “Although nothing like having mental health issues, it is a challenge that is difficult physically and mentally, it must fit in to my normal routine and I must do it every day regardless.”

Simone Moraes, community and events officer at SANE, says: “We are extremely grateful that Aodan is taking on this challenge throughout August for SANE, as the money raised will help us support more people affected by mental illness.”

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.