Hello,

As I am sure most of you are aware, last October my dad sadly took his own life. He had struggled with mental illness for many years and unfortunately last year he saw the only route out as the final one.

He had been a good sportsman at school and university, happily married from his early twenties and a Chartered Accountant with three kids living on Guernsey, but due to a variety of reasons his life had fallen apart, drinking became an unfortunate release and mixed in with bipolar disorder he and us as a family went through many hard years.

He had actually gone through a period of good health in the year preceding his death and as his children we all talked about how well he had been doing and so the news of his death was truly shocking and it has obviously all been extremely hard for us and people who knew him well to deal with.

Anyone that did know him would know he was an extremely kind individual, loved sports and especially loved being out on the sea around the islands.

In his memory and to raise awareness for mental health issues on the island my brother and I are going to be running the Guernsey Father's Day half marathon on the 19th June for the charity mind Guernsey.

If anyone has any questions about what the charity do exactly please have a look at the website www.guernseymind.org.gg or email them directly at info@guernseymind.org.gg.

Raising money is great but raising awareness is even better so if anyone actually wants to run with us on the day and be part of our Guernsey mind team then that would be fantastic. It is not a full marathon after all!

If you are interested in running and getting a free t-shirt for your troubles then contact me on benperfitt@gmail.com or David at dperfitt@hotmail.co.uk or just through here. If you are not up for running then a cheer along the way will be well received!

Alternatively you can go directly to Ian who works at mind and will be running on the day at ian.lemoigne@guernseymind.org.gg, letting him know size of t-shirt you want.

Thanks on behalf of Myself, David and our little sister Alice.