Every Saturday morning, for as long as I can remember, my mum would drag my grumpy, angsty 14-year-old self to Wimbledon Common Parkrun. As I begrudgingly grew accustomed to this routine, I began to rely on the weekly buzz around me, feeling comforted by the army of mums sipping oat lattes and discussing their upcoming trips to Ibiza. It was a place to escape, to leave any of my own worries, thoughts, and feelings from the previous week behind. It allowed me to just exist as a daughter tagging along on a run with her mum, only really being there for the mango smoothie that she would inevitably buy me afterwards.
As we began a very wet, dark 2026, I found the noise around health and wellbeing growing louder, while the news on television grew bleaker. With everything from AI ads and the heavily promoted ‘new year, new me’ craze circulating the internet to billboards unfairly attacking the concept of an indulgent Christmas, it’s easy to get lost in the mental cycle of punishment and enjoyment that every single human being knows all too well.
That’s why it feels especially important during times when the fate of our world feels so far beyond our control to turn to what we can largely control, our bodies. Looking after your health appears to be the antidote to the endless doomscrolling we are all vulnerable to, but it’s all too easy for self-care to morph into obsession. Finding ways to navigate the influx of media and images exposed to young people about how to look after ourselves is, without doubt, one of the biggest modern challenges to date, and I know I’m definitely not the only one struggling to stay afloat amongst it all.
Grassroots, the suicide prevention charity, is dedicated to tackling the ongoing mental health epidemic and high suicide rate in the UK. I could lecture for hours on the terrible statistics, like how only 5 out of every 17 deaths caused by suicide saw the attempted intervention of mental health services. But these facts have remained stubbornly on the page, and I want to do something about them.
This is why I am running the Brighton half-marathon in support of Grassroots, in an effort to make a positive change to the lives of so many people suffering in the UK, not just my own. Sussex Running Society, of which I am a member of the committee, has become an integral part of my life.
As someone with a complicated relationship to exercise, the combination of socialising whilst jogging has always been something to lean on rather than a competition. For as long as I’ve known, fitness culture and mental health have been intertwined in conversation, and as a result, they can be hard to separate. Which is why this year, when I decided to run the marathon for Grassroots, I knew I was doing it for all the young people who are told that their identity and wellness depend on their ability to ‘glow up’ and always be the best version of themselves. Running should be about making yourself feel good, not just ‘looking good’.
Every Monday, the running society gets together to jog around Stanmer Park or the Amex Stadium in Brighton, weather permitting! We fill our Monday afternoons with conversations about our weekends, sharing stories and upcoming adventures. The way running should be – about moving your body and maybe making friends along the way. While balance and kindness are much easier said than done, I will always campaign for exercise to feel comforting and enjoyable, separate from the capitalist propaganda that pushes young men and women to hate their bodies.
Although it still makes me feel tense to discuss race timings, pace, and the incessant Strava updates, I’m still learning how to look after my 21-year-old brain that runs a million miles an hour in a digital world. The ability to compare and contrast almost feels encouraged online, but the reality doesn’t have to be that way! Mental health, much like running, is about taking it one step at a time.
Grassroots don’t just offer resources to help prevent suicide; they’re also on a mission to break the stigma and raise awareness about how important looking after your mental wellbeing is. The principles of reaching out, changing detrimental habits and crafting a kinder, more forgiving inner voice are why this charity is important to me and why I am running a ludicrous 41 kilometres while working to raise as much money as I can.
Holly’s donation link – https://www.justgiving.com/page/holly-stobart-1?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL
Another article you may enjoy – https://thebadgeronline.com/2026/03/six-days-no-water-how-my-landlord-traded-my-basic-rights-to-explore-disneyland/
