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Alex Staniforth

Alex Staniforth

Adversity Adventurer, Motivational Resilience Speaker, Author and Mental Health Activist

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Pride of Britain Awards 2017 – Flying the Flag for Mental Health

You are here: Home / Mental Health / Pride of Britain Awards 2017 – Flying the Flag for Mental Health

November 2, 2017 by AdversityAdventurer 3 Comments

There’s some moments in life you can never really plan for. The Pride of Britain Awards was one of those! I was honoured to win the ‘Regional Fundraiser of the Year’ award for the Granada Reports (North West) region, and to have the opportunity to attend the final in London on 30th October.

Mental illness has affected me for several years, particularly depression, anxiety and bulimia. It’s so important to share these challenges, and having experienced them, there is simply not enough help available. I wanted to help fill this gap by raising money for YoungMinds to help young people get the voice they deserve. Through my challenge ‘Climb The UK’ this Summer I covered over 5,000 miles by bicycle, foot and kayak, climbing to the highest point of all 100 UK counties in 72 days. This raised over £24,000 for YoungMinds. I never imagined climbing to the highest point of Norfolk would lead to this!

Only recently I wrote down some long-term goals and one was to win a Pride of Britain award – to prove to myself that I had made a significant difference in the world. You can imagine my surprise when ITV News burst into a coffee shop and presented me with the regional award whilst having lunch a couple of weeks ago. Mum deserved an award for keeping it a secret for an entire week! (Watch the moment here>)

The whole night could be summed up best by one word: unreal. Walking down the red carpet into the extravagant Grosvenor House with flashing cameras and young kids jostling for autographs certainly made up for the exhaustion, eighteen-hour days, 120-mile bike rides, horizontal Scottish rain and saddle sores.

Paul Hollywood took a selfie with me and mum, I chatted to Olympian Greg Rutherford about running injuries, sat in Sharon Osbourne’s chair before Ozzy turned up, asked Noddy Holder whether it was Christmas yet, bantered with Gail Platt from Coronation Street, accidentally stood on Katie Piper’s dress, and obviously I wasn’t leaving without a photo with Holly Willoughby to tease dad back home! The A-listers treated us like the stars and we had an incredible three-course meal with some of the biggest legends in the country, from James Cracknell to Kelly Holmes, sat metres away, just like a normal restaurant. Jeremy Corbyn tested me on the highest points of three counties which I answered correctly… I think. Only Lord Alan Sugar refused a selfie. After dinner, the cameras started rolling ahead and producers ran around the room.

Even with Jimmy Carr and Paddy McGuinness in the room it was the inspirational award-winner Moin Younis who took the room by storm with innocent humour at Gareth Southgate’s expense… the list goes on! I also hoped to chat to Prince William about his mental health work and he had literally passed just inches away but sadly didn’t get the chance as he was escorted out of the room. But most inspiring of all were the other award winners – a room of people who had defied adversity and raised millions for charity – and I couldn’t believe I was there too. One of them is walking 300 miles home from the awards to raise even more money! Although disappointed I didn’t win the overall award out of the 17 ITV regional finalists, it went to Jake Coates, one of the bravest and most humbling people I have ever met. The stories made us cry, laugh and proud to be British. Often we only hear about the bad stories but Pride of Britain reminds us of the amazing things that we rarely hear about. We don’t fundraise for recognition, but being recognised like this just gives us more fire to keep making a difference.

During Climb The UK I was blown away by all the support I received. I also discovered how widespread mental illness is, but also the incredible generosity of so many people across the UK. I cannot thank you enough for your support in changing lives.

Our award was the last of the evening at 11pm, and we finished with a chorus of ‘All You Need Is Love’ (SPOILER ALERT!) the after-party continued until about 1:30am, being interviewed and mingling with the celebrities once again. I wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon anyway.

Everything felt like a weird dream as we headed home to normality. Hours later I was speaking at an event in Liverpool to raise awareness for hidden disabilities. Mental illness is a prime example. Looking at my award on the mantelpiece will give me a real boost through the low points and struggles, but I’ve come home inspired that there is so much more I need to do.

So… in a couple of weeks I’ll be cycling from home to Edinburgh, over 300 miles, in a target of 24 hours. I’m hoping to push my current fundraising total over the £25,000 mark (please donate here!). Why? To show others through physical challenges that mental illness isn’t a weakness, and talking about it is the greatest sign of strength.

Thanks again to everyone for your support and words of encouragement, I’m truly grateful.

… P.S. Adversity, you lost!

Category iconMental Health Tag iconAwards,  inspiration,  london,  mental health,  pride of britain,  wellbeing,  young minds

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tracey Chamberlain says

    November 2, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    Absolutely amazing Alex you are a inspiration, well deserved. Big love to you and the family keep up the good work ?

    Reply
  2. Rick McLellan says

    November 2, 2017 at 11:18 pm

    Hi Alex,
    You are an inspiring young man. Keep up the great work. I’m sure you will reach your ultimate goal of 2 million. Cheers

    Reply
  3. Claire Smedley says

    November 7, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    Alex you do some fantastic charity work, only fitting that you have been recognised at the Pride of Britain awards. Massive congratulations and good luck on your ride to Edinburgh! ??

    Reply

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Climbing mountains and the mind.
Charity Founder @mindomountains
🌎 The Lake District #GetOutside
Athlete @inov_8 @ordnancesurvey @ellisbrigham

Alex Staniforth - Adventurer
Back where it all began. Running with my old man! Back where it all began. Running with my old man!

Last March I got my Parkrun PB at Keswick and this weekend got my slowest at Fell Foot.

The plan was to keep my heart rate under 145bpm to avoid another crash of fatigue, which meant walking most of the hills. It took the discipline of Yoda not to set off chasing people like the good old days, especially when my dad overtook me in the first km. 

I hated exercise as a kid. On holiday in France my stepmum bribed me with €2 to run a mile with him. That was a lot of money back then... I hated every minute but dad inspired me to enter a 10km race for charity, and the rest is history. Dad came to watch every race since, as I happily claimed the family record at every distance from 5km to marathon, whilst he retired to become a Parkrun tourist. 

Never thought he'd beat me again, but never forget where you started.
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#LongCovid #TheComeback #MatchingJackets #parkrun #loveparkrun #fellfootpark
#LakeDistrict #lakedistrictuk #runninginspiration #Fellfoot #windermere #parkruntourist #fatherson
Much-needed adventure inspiration from @mrmarkbeau Much-needed adventure inspiration from @mrmarkbeaumont on his Faster tour at Rheged last weekend. 

Mark is the fastest person to cycle around the world in 80 days (that's 240 miles a day... for perspective) amongst many other records. He's been a huge personal inspiration and kindly endorsed my 2nd book.

So much resonated, but a few favourite takeaways: 

- Trust the process, the bigger picture will always take care of itself. 

- Remove the faff. His team had to ensure he was on the bike by 4am, not 4:05am. That would have added an entire day to his record.

- Mark had 40 people working on his world record. He knew that if he failed, the whole team failed. 

- Good times won't last forever, but that means the bad ones won't either... 

Thanks Mark. Grab his books, talks and films if you're needing some adventure inspiration! 

#faster #worldcycle #ultracycling #markbeaumont #inspiration #80days #mindset #cyclingheroes #rheged #ultracyclist 
@speakersfromtheedge
214/214 Wainwrights complete! Somehow it's taken 214/214 Wainwrights complete! 

Somehow it's taken 12 years, 8 months and 25 days since my first summit, Souther Fell, aged 14 (swipe for evidence). For those who don't know, the Wainwrights are a list of 214 summits created by legendary writer Alfred Wainwright. There was no better hill to finish than the aptly named 'Great Cockup', with a great crowd of friends.

The record is 5 days 12 hrs 14 mins... If only we hadn't stopped for a sandwich 😂 

Meanwhile @thehodfather666 is currently climbing all 214 with a 4 stone hod of house bricks, to raise money for @mindomountains.

However fast you go, there's something strangely addictive about this collection of fells. It's been a fun project to explore the Lakes and maybe one day I'll start again to see how fast I can get around... 

📸@danobeaumont

#GreatCockup #Wainwrights #LakeDistrict #Hillwalking  #GetOutside #Lakes #peakbagging #wainwrightswalks
A big welcome to the first CEO of @mindomountains, A big welcome to the first CEO of @mindomountains, Ian Sansbury! 

When Chris and I founded the charity in 2020 we never imagined how big it would become. From the flagship event with @adventureuncovered to delivering 27 events last year, supporting 300+ people with their mental health, including the NHS, Police and Ambulance Service.

Leadership is about creating a vision, and building a great team to achieve it - like our wonderful trustees, team and 50+ freelance staff who continually go above and beyond. 

It’s also knowing your strengths and weaknesses, when ironically it's compromised my own mental health sometimes too. As the charity grows I'm not the right person to take it where it needs to be, so it can reach everyone who needs our help.

Feeling like a proud parent sending their kids off to start school, with less crying, but I'm super excited to see the charity grow and support even more people with Ian’s expertise. 

I’ll remain heavily involved as a trustee (and Chief Interference Officer) to support the team, tell the story and raise money through daft adventures… 

Thanks to everyone who's been part of the first chapter. Onwards!

#NewChapter #MyBaby  #MentalHealthCharity #MindOverMountains
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