By Tom Garrett (Suicide Bereavement Team Lead)
After Sandra lost her daughter to suicide, her life changed forever. Sandra received one-to-one support from our Tomorrow Project team and after finishing this, she decided she wanted to raise awareness and money to aid our services. Sandra and her family were receiving support from our Derbyshire bereavement team until as recently as this summer, which inspired her and other family members to enter the recent Robin Hood Half Marathon to fundraise on our behalf.
The Tomorrow Project created sponsorship forms and sent Sandra some branded t-shirts, which she personalised with a photograph of her daughter. After a strenuous training regime, Sandra went on to finish the half-marathon in an impressive time of 2 hours and 29 minutes, raising a fantastic £1492.70 in the process — all of which has been invested straight back into our services providing support to those bereaved by suicide.
Since completing the half-marathon, Sandra seems to have got the fitness bug and continues to train on a regular basis, recognising the mental health benefits of regular exercise. We won’t hold Sandra to this, but she has also suggested she could possibly participate in future events to raise money for us. She also hopes her efforts could inspire other people to do the same. Regardless, The Tomorrow Project will be forever grateful for the commitment Sandra and her family have already shown to our services.
As a small organisation, we are always grateful for the continued dedication of all our supporters. Everyone at The Tomorrow Project would like to thank Sandra for her magnificent efforts and the money she has raised. THANK YOU SANDRA!
And if Sandra’s story has inspired you to get involved in supporting our work, you can download our fundraising pack here.