In less than 3 weeks I will be taking part in the London Triathlon. I was inspired by various people’s recent sporting exploits, but also because I want to raise awareness of an up and coming charity that I believe has the potential to make a huge impact for 450 million people worldwide.
I’m talking about MQ: Transforming Mental Health.
I’m talking about MQ: Transforming Mental Health.
1 in 4 people in the UK are affected by mental illness every year
25% | Do the stats - how many people is that in your family? That’s one in mine, that’s three of my closest friends, that’s 86.5 people that I’m connected with on Facebook, and that’s nearly 15 million people in the UK. |
That's a lot.
But we still don’t understand much of the biology behind mental illness, which is where MQ come in. MQ fund research into 3 areas of mental health:
Understanding - how do mental health conditions occur?
Treatments - understanding the mechanisms will enable more effective treatment
Prevention - are there risk factors that can be managed to stop mental health conditions in the first place?
Treatments - understanding the mechanisms will enable more effective treatment
Prevention - are there risk factors that can be managed to stop mental health conditions in the first place?
There are a number of wonderful charities supporting people with mental illness, but having trained as a scientist and seeing the impact that well-funded research and subsequent understanding can have on other diseases, I am desperate to see more funding being fed into mental health research. That’s why, in the first weekend of August 2016, I’ll be swimming 1.5K, cycling 40K and running 10K (that's Olympic length!) around London in support of MQ: Transforming Mental Health.
And I would love for you to support them too :-)
In the run up to the Triathlon I want to show you how essential more research into mental illness is. I will try to put together fact sheets on the science behind these diseases; showing you how much, or how little, we know about various mental illnesses. I am not a mental health expert, and so this is for my understanding as much as anyone's. By doing this, I hope to convince you that sponsoring me and supporting MQ is in everyone's interest, not just the 1 in 4.
Thanks for reading!
And I would love for you to support them too :-)
In the run up to the Triathlon I want to show you how essential more research into mental illness is. I will try to put together fact sheets on the science behind these diseases; showing you how much, or how little, we know about various mental illnesses. I am not a mental health expert, and so this is for my understanding as much as anyone's. By doing this, I hope to convince you that sponsoring me and supporting MQ is in everyone's interest, not just the 1 in 4.
Thanks for reading!
McManus S, Meltzer H, Brugha T, Bebbington P, Jenkins R (eds) (2009). Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England 2007: results of a household survey. NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care. [online] Available at: http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/psychiatricmorbidity07.