Tanya Louise Whitaker

Tanya, a strong, inspiring lady, this year on April 23rd, 2023, decided to run the London marathon in aid of mind charity in the memory of her son Sam who they sadly lost last year.

Tanya's world fell apart when her beautiful, smart, kind, funny son took his life following a, mostly silent, battle with his mental health. Samuel was 19 and was in his first year at Warwick university studying Computer Science. Tanya filtered all her energy into fundraising for mind charity and running helped as its very cathartic and settling in a way for her. She needed to put her grief somewhere and in doing so she put it into raising awareness for mental health specifically in young adults.

Tanya's goal was to do the marathon, raise awareness and get funds which was much needed and amazingly, Tanya did this. Never enough awareness can be raised around the problems of mental health in young adults just like Sam who did suffer in silence.

Tanya completed the race with her daughter Charlotte, they both decided that running the marathon would be a healing process for them. They both ran for Mind, but Charlotte had her own part of the charity that she was raising money for. "So, we did it together... well most of it, she sort of went off at the end." Tanya was very drawn to this particular charity and felt that is where she needed to be, "it fitted, fitted for Sam and how he decided to end his life." The charity as a whole helped Tanya through this challenging time, the organisers have helped with all fundraising like putting up pop up boxes for people to donate. The total after all the charity events including the charity black tie ball, a cake sale at Sam's old school and Master Yoga classes, Charlotte raised just over £3000, and Tanya raised £16,500 which is absolutely incredible. Tanya believed it was important to involve people instead of just asking for money, they wanted to make their family and friends feel a part of the journey, "People have been so generous and I just can't believe it actually!"

An assortment of emotions had filled Tanya's body during the marathon, on both sides of the coin she was excited to complete the marathon but was sad to do it, she knew she wouldn't be doing it if Sam was here, "I thought of Sam a lot... It made me feel close to Sam, the whole thing."

All those things were challenging for her, she had a sense of pressure and anxiety throughout but when she saw her friends and family on the side line, she felt grateful that they were there supporting her. All her friends and family were so proud of her for such an amazing achievement and everything she had done to raise awareness for a much-needed cause. 

Tanya's best friend Claire is "very proud and after losing her son to suicide in very traumatic circumstances in just under a year she has put so much together, organising the charity ball along with training for the marathon, being the person to raise the highest amount ever for Mind in memory of her beautiful boy. Doing all that with a broken heart and grieving the loss of her son is both inspiring and something to be very proud of." 

Jason, also Tanya's friend called her 'A Super star'

He said: "her commitment and dedication to the cause in such a traumatic time in her life was inspiring. The charity Mind is one that is close to Tanya's heart. She smashed the marathon!"

Tanya, with some other people, have lobbied our MP to put a debate into the House of Commons for Universities to have a duty of care to their students who are going into the first year of university. Students should have an opt-in system where they can opt-in at the beginning of the year, and they can be checked on and parents will be notified if the child is not turning up for lectures and parents can ask how they are doing, there are a body of parents who have sadly lost their child and are getting on board. 

Tanya runs an aesthetics business from her garden, since losing Sam she has stopped working full-time, she believes she needs to look after herself and the best way to do that is to find a work life balance as she also has two other children. Her and her husband Paul have just got a camper van and plan to go away for long weekends, just like her friends, Tanya's clients really understand she needs her time out. 

During Tanya's training she decided to begin a YouTube channel to document her running, feelings, do this for her own mental health and she wanted to tell everybody her story. 'It was good for me, I didn't feel suffocated or anxious, it was just me in my room with the camera, I didn't have to see anyone.' Tanya didn't want to do any filters or get dressed up she would just say how she felt during her run or after and no re-takes. "It was just me being me." I did a couple, and the response was unreal!" This became a Sunday ritual, Tanya said "I felt like I had a big blanket around me of people who were doing it with me. It was really difficult, and I cried a lot and was really emotional, but I did get a lot from that, and I guess it was my therapy."

Tanya's advice is very important given the society we live in now, with so many people suffering with their mental health, in particular the stats for young people transferring into university, one student every four days takes their own life. Tanya stated that it is very important that everyone is doing some form of mental health courses that are free online backed by the government. "You think you know about mental health, but you actually don't until something like this actually happens to you and I could look back now and say if I knew that then things may have been different but it's too late now."

"Just arm yourself with knowledge, you may just save a life. Be open and more aware and use social media for the right reasons."