00:00So my name's Chris Rogers. I'm running 500 miles for 500 lives, dressed in full PPE.
00:07It's Bristol, the Bristol Half Marathon is part of my event so I run a half marathon
00:11every week for 36 weeks and I'm currently week 10 in so yeah, I'll be in Bristol.
00:18And can you tell us a bit about why you run 500 miles for 500 lives?
00:24Yeah so basically on average 500 people take their own life every year in construction
00:30and it's a staggering statistic so I'm running all over the UK to try and raise awareness and
00:37to raise funds for Mates in Mind who's an incredible charity who do a lot of proactive
00:41work to reduce the number. And how have you trained for the 500 miles? It's really hard
00:50to train for it. I just got out running before Christmas before I started just in normal
00:56sort of trainers and stuff but I guess running in PPE you can't really train for. You've just got to
01:01put it on and get out the door which is what I've done and I've had a few struggles since I've
01:05started but it's easing off a little bit and luckily so far I have no injuries so
01:12I'm hoping that stays true. The experience has been overwhelming, a massive leak. I've had a lot
01:18of support from friends, family and a lot of strangers as well so I've got dedicated Instagram
01:23and TikTok accounts where I blog my runs. I talk about suicide, I talk about signs and symptoms,
01:27I talk about mental health. I've had people reach out to me in times of crisis. I've also
01:35throughout my event I've also had unfortunately I've had a friend take his own life so the event
01:41for me has been really really big for me personally but also I'm also seeing some difference that's
01:47being made and people are talking as well which is amazing so it's been a journey
01:54so far and I've got a long way to go.
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