Walking Together for Better Mental Health

September 5, 2017 by Michael Shelley

Trust Links, the local mental health and wellbeing charity, is making a call out to the community to join them for their annual ‘Walking Together’ fundraising walk. The picturesque walk is taking place on Saturday 16 September at 9.00am, departing from our Rochford office, and will be an 8.5 mile circular walk. There will also be a shorter fully accessible 2.5 mile walk.

Physical exercise has long been proven to be beneficial for mental health and walking is a great starter exercise to increasing your fitness. You don’t need to walk a huge distance, just being outdoors, getting some fresh air can help to make you feel better. You also don’t need a lot of equipment, just some comfortable flat shoes and a coat in case it gets cool. Looking around and taking in your environment whilst having a stroll can be a real eye opener to your local community, even in more urban areas there are beautiful eco systems to be seen.

This is Trust Links’s third Walking Together sponsored fundraising walk. The funds raised allow us to continue delivering support services for people in the local area with mental health problems. The 8.5 mile walk will start and finish at our 'Growing Together Rochford' site in Rocheway and will take in the picturesque countryside, mudflats and wildlife alongside the River Roach.

Trust Links is a local mental health charity, which promotes wellness via therapeutic gardening and other activities, we also provide counselling and peer support activities for carers. Throughout the year we run a number of community events to encourage people to talk about mental health, removing the stigma associated with it.

Matt King, CEO of Trust Links, said “Walking Together is a great event to get involved with as it is widely accessible and we have many families taking part which gives it a real community feel. It also allows us to highlight the benefit of physical exercise for your mental wellbeing which mirrors the basic ethos used in our Growing Together therapeutic gardens which we have seen transform lives. Encouraging people to walk more also ties in with our objective to create a more sustainable environment and community. ”

Walkers will meet at Trust Links, 34 Rocheway, Rochford, SS4 1DQ at 9.00am, with the walk departing at 9.30am. There is no entry fee to take place. If you would like to register please contact communications@trustlinks.org or call 01702 213 134