Manchester girl set for ‘terrifying’ Scandinavian trek to raise money for mental health in memory of brother

By Nic Marko

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“Last year around February time I wouldn’t even go out the house, I couldn’t do anything.

Vaila’s quest stems from this, and she believes there is a stigma attached to these issues, especially for males.

“In young men I think people are ashamed about it because you can’t see it, so people think it’s not real,” she said.

“It’s not like you’ve got a broken leg and someone can see it, it is invisible, so it’s hard to explain.

“In society men are meant to take on all this stuff and not have emotions, I think it’s just hard for people to talk about our feelings.

“Especially being the English people we are, we don’t talk about this stuff and I think that adds to the stigma attached to it.

“We have this stiff upper lip to toughen up and just get on with it but people have feelings, we are all human, I think that’s why there’s a big stigma.

“My brother really opened my eyes to it. I was aware of it, I knew about it, but I didn’t really know how it felt.

“I could empathize with people, but not really know what it is.”

Vaila is fundraising for Manchester Mind, who will use the money to pay for quality support, training volunteers and community projects aimed at making people feel important again.

She has already reached her incredible £4,000 fundraising target on Just Giving, but now hopes to push on and raise more to help those in the Manchester area.

She said: “They help people in the local community and people need help here, I know a lot of people who suffer with mental health issues.

“A lot of people out there have mental health issues who have never spoke about it, never come forward or didn’t even know there was help.

“I just chose to help Manchester Mind because that deals with a lot of different mental health issues.

“It helps young people but it also deals with older people, it offers such a wide range of help and care.”

To find out more and donate to Vaila’s cause, click here.

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