‘Two deaf foot’ men complete walk and raise £50,000 for deaf mental health (BSL)u

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Two deaf men have completed their walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End, beating their fundraising target of £10,000 by reaching over £50,000 in donations.

Watch this information in BSL here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaLPMO6Z71A

Watch a video of their journey below:

https://youtu.be/iyNF6bPDCvo

Mark Hodgson and Daniel Dorney completed the walk yesterday (Sunday 4th August). They walked across the country to raise awareness of Mental Health issues facing the Deaf community.

The journey started on 5 June from John O’Groats and has seen the men walk a gruelling 1,200 miles on foot over two months overcoming extreme weather – from torrential rain to some of the hottest days recorded in the UK.

Assisted by support driver and friend Chris Potts, the Nottingham and York locals undertook the walk to raise money in aid of two Deaf organisations: SignHealth and Deaf4Deaf.

Daniel said “We are proud to be the first Deaf men to complete this walk. I wanted to do this because of the physical and mental challenge it would require. Mental Health is an issue needed to be taken more seriously particularly within the Deaf community and I know this from experiencing it first-hand. The most challenging part of this wasn’t always the physical but to maintain that drive and motivation to keep going. Luckily with all the support we were able to push through”  

Since starting their journey local Mayors, MPs and many communities have shown support, applauding and embracing them as they go. Members of the Deaf community and the wider general public have also joined them on stretches of their walk, seeing an extremely engaged community grow on social media of over 6,000 people follow their journey and helping treble their fundraising target of £10,000 to over £30,000.

Access to mainstream mental health services for Deaf people is almost non-existent, and yet Deaf people are twice as likely to experience mental health problems than hearing people. Only 27% of Deaf people enter treatment within 6 weeks which is far below the NHS target of 75%.

Mark said: “The process of receiving professional help is lengthy and the waiting times for approvals means Deaf people’s problems worsen which makes recovery harder and longer. Some Deaf people struggle accessing mainstream hearing services using interpreters, preferring to see specialised Deaf counsellors that uses BSL. We strongly believe it is time for change.”

Daniel, Mark and Chris raised funds for Deaf mental health organisations Deaf4Deaf and SignHealth who are dedicated to making sure Deaf people get the same access to healthcare as hearing people.

To donate just click here.