{"id":1942,"date":"2017-10-02T08:01:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T08:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/host-students.com\/uncategorized\/student-mental-health\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:16:43","slug":"student-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Running to raise awareness of student mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><em>Guest post &#8211; Laura Bailey, Marketing Executive at Host. <\/em><\/h4>\n<p>In September 2016, I was out with some friends and we got talking about the Half Marathon that was taking place in Cardiff that coming week. We laughed and joked about how we were thankful we weren\u2019t running it again (after already taking part the previous year), but somehow, we ended up entering a pact together that we would all sign up and run the Cardiff Half Marathon the following year\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Well, one year later, here we are. The Cardiff Half Marathon took place yesterday (1<sup>st<\/sup> October 2017), and I am pleased to say that I survived. The months of training, injury and pain paid off; I completed the 13.1 mile run in 1 hour 54 minutes, and I can now officially put my running trainers to rest\u2026 well, for a few days anyway.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-4994\" src=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cardiff-half-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"cardiff-half-number-tshirt\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>\u00a0\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5058 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Cardiff-Half-Finish-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"running half marathon for student mental health\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>\u00a0\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5057\" src=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Cardiff-Half-Medal-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And while I\u2019ll no doubt moan about the struggle and the sprint towards the finish line, I can feel satisfied knowing it was all in the name of a good cause; I was running the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mind.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Mind<\/a>, the mental health charity.<\/p>\n<h3>Why I chose to run for Mind<\/h3>\n<p>Since working in an industry focused around students, I have become more aware of the struggles and challenges that they face and therefore wanted to raise awareness of student mental health problems. I also came across the following stats which are increasingly concerning:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 out of 3 students feel down at some point during their studies<\/li>\n<li>Over 50% of students don&#8217;t feel comfortable admitting they&#8217;re not coping to someone else<\/li>\n<li>1 in 8 students experience suicidal feelings at university<\/li>\n<li>20% of higher education students consider themselves to have a mental health problem<\/li>\n<li>The number of students who took their own lives increased by 50% between 2007 and 2011<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, while university is meant to be an exciting time of your life, and \u2018the best years of your life\u2019, it&#8217;s clear that this isn\u2019t always the case. Coping with homesickness, meeting, living and socialising with new people, the pressures to meet assignment deadlines, do well in exams and manage finances are just some of the challenges and stresses that students face. And although stress isn\u2019t a mental health problem, it can lead to mental health problems such as depression or anxiety. Other types of mental health problems that students may experience include eating disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, loneliness, insomnia, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>Those suffering with a mental health problem such as the above, shouldn\u2019t suffer in silence or cope on their own. Thankfully, charities such as Mind are here to help. Mind provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding of mental health problems.<\/p>\n<h3>Thank you!<\/h3>\n<p>And I\u2019m pleased to say that by running the Cardiff Half Marathon this year, I raised a total of \u00a3323.00; with 50% of this money being donated to Mind, and 50% to Macmillan Cancer Support. I\u2019d like to say a big thank you to everyone at Host for their support and to everyone who donated. Now to look for my next challenge\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>For more information about Mind and student mental health, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mind.org.uk\/get-involved\/students\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a>. You can also find out more about how we at <a href=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Host<\/a> look after <a href=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/your-wellbeing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">your wellbeing<\/a> too.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mind.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4950\" src=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mind_charity_logo-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"mind_charity_logo\" width=\"234\" height=\"117\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post. I was running the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise awareness of student mental health problems. Mind charity provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,56],"subject":[67],"location-tax":[],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-students","category-university-students","subject-student-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Student Mental Health - Running to raise awareness - Blog | Host<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I ran the Cardiff Hald Marathon in October 2017 for Mind because I wanted to help raise awareness of student mental health problems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Running to raise awareness of student mental health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I ran the Cardiff Hald Marathon in October 2017 for Mind because I wanted to help raise awareness of student mental health problems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Host students\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HostStudentsUk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-02T08:01:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T12:16:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/marathon-runners.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jon Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jon Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jon Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1adf2a14b289d4a334f729b9d4672800\"},\"headline\":\"Running to raise awareness of student mental health\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-02T08:01:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-08T12:16:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\"},\"wordCount\":558,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/marathon-runners.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"New students\",\"University students\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/host-students.com\/information\/new-students\/student-mental-health\/\",\"name\":\"Student Mental Health - 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