On August 11th 2018 from 11am to 11pm, my friends and I will be taking part in a Charity Livestream to raise money for Inspiring Life: The Evie Douglas Memorial Fund. We will be playing games and having a good time in order to raise a bit of money for a great cause in our community that raises awareness of mental health disorders and conditions. It is a cause that has resonated with me as someone who has dealt with mental illness in the past and who is currently dealing with some issues at the moment. I wanted to take this blog post to talk about the cause and why I believe raising money for it is a good idea. If you would like to donate to this cause, please check the link here or click the image on the sidebar of this blog.
The following blog post deals with subjects such as depression, anxiety and suicide. Please avoid reading if you are affected by such matters.
Inspiring Life is run by a lady named Freda Douglas. She is the mother of Evie, the namesake of this charity, who unfortunately completed suicide.
“Weeks after celebrating her 21st birthday, Evangeline Dobson Douglas (Evie) completed suicide.
Here are some words from Evie’s final letter to her family and friends:
‘No one tells you how hard life is going to be.
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness” – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It’s the most fitting and accurate description I’ve ever read.’In Evie’s short life there was much happiness. Evie exuded creativity, she studied, sang, painted, taught and choreographed dance, travelled worldwide and participated in extreme sports: Marathon Running, skiing, the Tough Mudder, [A high-endurance obstacle course] microlighting and skydiving. She had so much to live for…
It’s not how she ended her life that matters but how she lived it… Evie led an inspiring life and she continues to inspire others.”
– Taken from an Inspiring Life leaflet
Since then, Freda has used this cause to fundraise for many mental health charities including the Scottish Association for Mental Health and Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. She has also used the fund to support students and groups looking to pursue similar goals to Evie, including Peebles High School Dance Group and individuals looking to pursue careers in dance. She does this to honour Evie’s legacy and ensure that she is not forgotten by inspiring others to pursue their goals and dreams much like Evie did during her life.
I do not enjoy talking about it, but I too suffer from some mental hardships. For a long time, I’ve had to deal with depression and, to a lesser extent, some issues with anxiety. At its worst, it’s caused me to lose a job and led to some of the worst feelings I’ve ever experienced. The worst part is that, for the most part, you feel as though you are suffering it alone and, without proper support and/or medical help, this can snowball into some serious problems down the line. From my own perspective, thoughts of suicide and loss of control of my thoughts were all too common; from thoughts of harming myself to harming the ones I loved. While, in hindsight, I would have never have actioned on those thoughts, you can be sure that I walked the edge of that line pretty darn close and knowing how close I tread that threshold was, and still is, terrifying.
To be able to raise money for a cause like this is, for me, an opportunity that I take very seriously. If you are reading this and would like to support us, I urge you to click the link here or on the homepage’s sidebar. If not, then please join us on August 11th at 11am BST for 12 hours of video games and fun times and enjoy yourself. The least we can with the stream is cheer you up but if you can support us any further, then please do so. I will be eternally grateful.
Thank you.
EDOOWINNIE 