Catering Scotland

Walk for Calm, the campaign to promote better mental health in hospitality, launched this morning to
raise funds to support the work of Hospitality Action and CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

Back for a second year, the event is powered 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: ‘This is an event that is accessible to all ages and abilities, no matter what your fitness level may be. You can walk, wheel, run, skateboard, cartwheel or even pogo your chosen distance. The important thing is to have some fun whilst raising money and awareness for such an important cause.

‘There has never been a more important time for people to come together to increase awareness of wellbeing and positive mental health. Please support and get involved however you can, whether that’s through social media
sharing, signing up to take part on your own or as part of a team with friends and family, or by making a donation.’

Mark Lewis is CEO of Hospitality Action, said: ‘We offer lifelines to people who work or have worked in the hospitality industry and who find themselves in difficulty. As you can imagine more people than ever have been in crisis and we received around 20,000 emails asking for help in the first week of the lockdown. We estimate we have 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, CEO at the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a leading movement against suicide, added:
‘At CALM we try to help anybody who finds themselves in crisis. 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.’

On Saturday 18th September, hosted walks will take place in London, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh. Participants can pick a distance from 10km to 40km and then run, walk, wheel, relay, skip, skate, pogo or even cartwheel their way through, while raising funds to support those struggling with mental health and wellbeing.

Kicking off on World Suicide Prevention Day – Friday 10th September – Walk for Calm runs until Sunday 26th September. Full information on hosted walks will be shared on Monday 19th July.
#walkforcalm

Visit the Walk for Calm website HERE.
Visit our Virgin Money page HERE.