A CUMBRIAN endurance athlete is running coast to coast from St Bees. 

Alex Staniforth, of Kendal, will be taking on the challenge from July 5 to July 7 in what he describes as a warm-up for a massive charity effort over the coming year. 

He is leading an attempt to raise £500,000 for the mental health charity Mind Over Mountains.

His route for this first challenge will take him from St Bees, across the peaks of three national parks, to finish at Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire.

He starts on Friday, July 5, at 8am and aims to complete the 300km run, with an ascent of over 8,000 metres by Sunday evening, July 7.

Mr Staniforth said: "We have set ourselves the ambitious target of half a million pounds because we really want to increase the work of the charity to meet the growing demand for mental health support, especially for young adults."

Alex is now fronting the campaign that has been badged “Project 500”. It is a call to action for mass participation - seeking individuals, organisations, and schools to get involved and create their own fundraising challenges or events to help support mental well-being. The target for reaching £500,000 is June 2025 which will be Alex's 30th birthday.

He said: "Sadly, too many young adults will not reach that birthday milestone as suicide is the biggest killer among under 35s in the UK."

As one way of tackling this, evidence consistently shows a positive relationship between spending time in nature or exposure to nature and good health and wellbeing.

Mind Over Mountains organises walks and weekend retreats in places like the Peak District, Lakes, and Welsh mountains.

The charity is increasingly working with social prescribing link workers, who are based within primary care networks and at GP's practices.

Patients can then qualify for free or heavily subsidised places on walks and retreats, funded by the charity.

Ian Sansbury, chief executive of Mind Over Mountains said: “Without support from the charity sector, the NHS simply can't keep up with demand.

“Our ambition is to make nature- and activity-based responses to wellbeing the norm, rather than the exception, in mental health care and support. We will be looking on the new government to help deliver on this."