This year, I'm walking in the Out of the Darkness 18 mile overnight walk through San Francisco. This walk is to support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the friends and family of loved ones lost to suicide.
I'm going to walk for my friends. I'm going to walk for the people they've lost. I'm going to walk for the people I never met. And I'm going to walk for myself.
If you know me particularly well, you might know that for a while, I struggled with depression. I fought myself just to get out of bed. I had many days when I just lost the battle. It took me a long time to discover that I was lucky. I had people who I could talk to - people who helped me through my days. Many, many people are depressed today, and haven't realised that they are just as lucky as I was.
Right now there are friends, brothers, sisters, strangers, fathers, wives, teammates, colleagues, classmates who are finding it hard to get through their day. People that you might not see tomorrow, because they don't know who to talk to.
You can change that. You can help.
If you can, sponsor my walk (if you don't have a credit card but would still like to donate, email me and we'll work something out). Even better, join me.
But over that, please just ask the person next to you how they're doing.
Sometimes that's all it takes.
Thank you.
Carl.