24 Hour Challenge to raise awareness for women’s mental health charities
Tamsin Horne (Gym owner) hosts Mum, Baby and Toddler Personal Training classes from her child friendly gym; Reset Fitness Studio in Kerikeri. Tamsin describes her fitness studio as ’boutique’ and has attracted many pre and postnatal women to join her studio community. With that in mind, she decided to set up a fundraiser to support two organisations close to her heart; PADA and Women’s Health Action Trust, to raise awareness and funds for organisations who work hard to improve the lives of women and birthing people.
Tamsin is open about why this kaupapa is important to her, and has always been open with her clients about her own mental health journey. She shared her story with PADA:
“16 years ago I almost lost my life to a brain haemorrhage, and following this trauma I was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression. As this was not an accident, I wasn’t covered by ACC, and with no funding, I fell through the gaps of the health system. At 16 years old, I was discharged from hospital with zero support mentally. My mental health declined and I spent several years feeling lost and isolated.”
Looking after her ongoing health lead to her becoming a personal trainer, wanting to help and support others. Tamsin is also a long distance runner, however recently she was devastated to learn she had to have surgery on her pelvis.
Knowing that she was due for surgery in 92 days time she wanted to find a positive in the situation. She set herself a challenge to complete 5kms running a day for 90 days, and would personally donate $1 per kilometre ran to raise money for Women’s Mental Health. She completed 740 kilometres across the 90 days.
To begin with, she started getting a few donations here and there, but when her local cafe Redwoods Cafe realised she was raising funds to support Women’s Mental Health, they got behind the fundraiser and matched her $1 per km donations. This is when she realised it was much bigger than just her.
With around a month to go, Tamsin wondered how she could get even more awareness and interest in this fundraising effort. She decided on involving her local community.
She came up with the idea to host a 24 hour Treadmill Event – from 5pm Friday 10th of March to 5pm Saturday 11th of March. People could book in for 15 minute slots to tick off as many kilometres as possible; walking or running on the treadmill. The treadmill was soon booked out so she opened the bookings to the rowing machine, ski erg and assault bike. Not only that, her incredible sponsors (R & K THOMAS Contracting, Granite Heaven, Cafe at Redwoods, Jim Russ Collision Repair) donated $1+ per treadmill km to the cause.
Tamsin truly got her community to work together as a team, to run or walk to show their support towards Women’s Mental health.
“We dedicate an entire month to men’s mental health (which I think is awesome and such an incredible cause to stand behind) however it saddens me that there is not a lot of awareness around women’s mental health.
Chances are you in fact know someone who is affected by mental health issues such as anxiety, PTSD, or depression.. and chances are they’ve kept their struggles to themselves for far too long, trying to bury their feelings away from the open eye.
Pre and postnatal depression. Loss of a child. Loss of an unborn child. Birth injuries. Peri/Menopausal. Conditions such as endometriosis. Infertility. Sexual Assault. Eating disorders. Domestic Violence.
All of these complex issues have an immense impact on a females mental health.
SO MANY WOMEN SUFFER IN SILENCE.
For a lot of women, they don’t feel comfortable to speak up about their struggles. Instead- they go on to fight their own battle with zero support or guidance.. resulting in a sense of failure or lack of self worth.
This is not what we want for our women.”
Let’s show the women of Aotearoa suffering through a mental health journey; that we see you. We are doing this for YOU!
DO IT FOR YOU. DO IT FOR HER. DO IT FOR US” – Tamsin
RESET Fitness Studio – FIT by Tamsin
See Tamsin’s fundraiser here on Givealittle.
Shout out too to Michelle from @zewnealanddesign for their graphic work to support RESET Fitness Studio!
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