Hucknall man is walking five million steps for mental health awareness

Paul Cook is aiming to walk five million steps in 150 days – 33,333 a day, a daily distance of 14.6 miles.

The 41-year-old is taking on the challenge to raise funds for the charity Mind and also raise awareness of mental health issues, particularly for people who feel they cannot talk about it, and emphasising the message it is okay not to be okay.

He said: “A lot of people who I’ve seen have done fundraisers where they’ve done a million steps in 30 days and I’m a little bit overweight, so I decided I wanted to push myself further and make it a bigger challenge.

"A lot of the reason for doing this is I’ve had my own battles with mental health and a lot of people I work with and close friends of mine have also struggled with their mental health.

"If I can raise around £1,000 but also raise a bit of exposure for the fact it’s okay, not to be okay, then that will be that will be the main goal.”

Paul works as a bricklayer and says an industry like that is exactly the sort of area where people do not talk about mental health – and he wants to change that.

He said: “The building industry is all macho sometimes and everyone’s hard and don’t really speak about things like this.

“It’s sometimes seen that your a bit inferior if you say you’re struggling or your’re in tears or things like that.

“I must admit, in the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of building and construction sites trying to do more about it, but because it’s still such male-dominated world, people don’t find it easy to talk to a workmate about something like mental health issues.

“But the frightening statistic is two people die from suicide every day in the construction industry in the UK and that’s why we need to raise more awareness.”

Paul will be covering most of his miles around Hucknall, but at weekends he will venture further afield and cover areas like the Pennine Way.

He has also set up a JustGiving page people can donate to at justgiving.com/page/paulcook-5millionstepschallenge