CET does #MHAW - Stephen's Challenge

For Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 (13th - 19th May), CET's senior management team is taking on challenges across our network to raise money for our three nominated challenges.

We're asking our employees and our clients to vote for their favourite challenges by donating £1 via our #MHAW Challenger's JustGiving page. Every £1 counts as 1 vote. The top six will take on their challenge across Mental Health Awareness Week and beyond.

Stephen Humphrey, Finance Director, tells us more about his challenge, his nominated charity and why he deserves your vote.

Challenge:

Feasts across the Peaks

Location:

Warrington, Chesterfield and Newark

Why did you choose this challenge?

A lot of us seem to have chosen challenges that involve food – and why not? It’s a great way of bringing people together.

I’ll be serving breakfast in Warrington, making my way down to Chesterfield to serve up lunch, then heading to one of our newest sites, Newark, for a spot of Afternoon Tea (home-made cakes and all). I’ll be bringing my faithful companion Eddie, the Cairn Terrier, along for the ride too!

It’s important to me that the message is spread across the whole company, and that everyone has a chance to take part.

Food is one of the things that gets people talking, whether it’s sitting with colleagues over lunch or at the dinner table with family or friends. It’s often at these times that we get to reflect and talk to the people that are close to us, so I’m hoping that by taking my drive across the Peak District, I’ll provide an opportunity for colleagues to come together and get a conversation started.

Which charity will you be supporting?

My votes will be donated to the Samaritans, which provides support to people when they are most at need; taking calls 24/7, 365 days a year, to prevent suicide and reduce feeling of isolation and disconnect that could lead to suicide.

What does taking part in raising awareness of Mental Health issues mean to you?

We all know how important it is to increase conversations about our mental health, but I feel it’s still something that we all find difficult to bring up in conversation; particularly if we are struggling ourselves.

There are many mental health issues that arise in the workplace to varying degrees, including stress-related issues, so by taking part I hope to prove that at CET there is no taboo over mental health and that we can all be open and honest with our colleagues.