Walk for Calm to return this September

Walk for Calm is to return this September to promote wellbeing and mental health in the hospitality industry and raise funds to support the work of Hospitality Action and CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

All ages and abilities are welcome to pick a distance from 10km-40km and run, walk, wheel, relay, skip, skate, pogo or even cartwheel the distance while raising funds to support those struggling with mental health and wellbeing. The distance can be covered all at once or in stages.

Participants can share their videos and pictures and tag #walkforcalm when the event kicks off on World Suicide Prevention Day, 10 September, until 26 September. On 18 September, hosted walks will take place in London, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. Full information on hosted walks will be shared on 19 July.

The event is being organised by mum in partnership with Caterer.com, UKHospitality, Umbrella Training, The Caterer, Institute of Hospitality, Tonic Talent, AA Media, EXP101, Sixty-Eight People, HIT Scotland, HRinHospitality, Arena, Hoteliers’ Charter, Catering Scotland and Off to Work.

Craig Prentice, founder of Walk for Calm, said: “I’m excited to bring Walk for Calm back for a second year to promote better mental health across our industry, while highlighting and supporting the great work of Hospitality Action and CALM.”

“There has never been a more important time for people to come together in a fun way to increase awareness of wellbeing and positive mental health.’

Mark Lewis, chief executive of Hospitality Action, said: “Hospitality Action offers lifelines to people who work or have worked in the hospitality industry and find themselves in difficulty. As you can imagine, more people than ever have been in crisis, mostly financial, over the last 14 months.

“We received 20,000 emails asking for help in the first week of the lockdown and we calculate that Hospitality Action has helped approximately 5,000 hospitality households since Covid first struck last March. By taking part in Walk for Calm you’ll be keeping active and engaged, taking care of your own mental health as you take care of others.”

Simon Gunning, chief executive at the CALM, added: “We try to help anybody and everybody who finds themselves in crisis, with suicide prevention at our core. We campaign for personal and societal change, and we run a helpline from five to midnight, seven days a week, which is free to call and staffed by professionals during lockdown. We took over 130,000 calls and visits to our website over the past year, more than double the previous period, so our services are clearly needed more than ever.

“The pandemic has had a profound impact on our lives and will continue to do so as more people than ever turn to CALM for support. By raising awareness and vital funds for our helpline services through this amazing event, we can continue to be there for whoever needs us, no matter what.”

For Hospitality Action, £25 will pay for around an hour of telephone support, while £100 will pay for new interview clothes and shoes to help people get back to work following redundancy. Just £8 pays for a call on the CALM Helpline.

To get involved, sign up or sponsor, visit the Virgin Money page here.