Charity week

National Mental Health Awareness Week 2023

for a Leicester Photographer

Wow what a week!

So last week was national mental health week, & there was a lot going on.

Monday I had organised a charity curry night at the Cuisine of India in Wigston on behalf of LAMP

Over 80 tickets were sold, there was a raffle, I played a bit of guitar.. in total we raised £1714.2. Also on Monday I had a 9:30am shoot, in Kent!!

Tuesday was mostly spent editing Mondays shoot, before going for a run.

Wednesday I had a 9am shoot in South Leicester for a new client, which went brilliantly!

At 11am there was a 5k walk before the Lamp Charity business club, due to the shoot I only managed half of the walk with Scott Mathie.

The LAMP business club is one of my favourite clubs to attend, this time I was on the main stage talking about my time as a member. I have to say it was quite nervous being on stage with Greg Hollingsworth, Jenny Collard and Dee Beckett (nee Patel), all people great a public speaking it seems!

Thursday I had 3 schools to photograph, they have recently joined a trust and needed new promotional shots for their prospectus, website and social media channels.

On the way home I called into see Tony Cox. I’d met Tony though an old friend a few years ago, and we’d recently reconnected at an event at Menphys. Tony wanted to freshen up his headshot. As the session went well, and there was time left I decided to get a bit creative and give Tony a few extra shots.

Friday I was long overdue a catch up with Anup Singh from Oadby Estates, a really nice guy who runs his family business with his brother.

From Oadby I went to Leicester Outdoor Pursuits Centre for some overcoming fears with the amazing people from LAMP.

LAMP’s theme for national mental health week this year was overcoming mountains, and mine is definitely a fear of heights. I agreed to the abseil, but as most people seemed to switch activities half way through, I ended up doing the air walk activities too… and it was terrifying, but I did it!

Saturday it was LAMP’s take over at Leicester Victoria ParkRun. This was timed perfectly with myself Greg and Dave's A to Z in 2023 fundraiser for LAMP. Lena Patel FPFS graciously sponsored this weeks run, Lena also came to run with us!!

The run was brilliant, lots of people cheering us on, marshalling etc. I've never been able to complete a 5k in under 25 mins, but after some amazing coaching from Matt Green, & constant running practise… I finally did it!

Talking of running & LAMP’s 5k campaign.. I set myself a target of running 5k every day Monday-Saturday… Apart from Monday (where I ran 3k &walked 2.5k) I ran a 5k every day. Huge achievement for me, as I normally run 2-3 times a week. Also, finding the time during this crazy week was a challenge!

Sunday it was the return of the Cool As Media 5km (it’s actually 6.5km :-) ) starting at the Craddock pub, walking through Aylestone Meadows & ending at Everards Beer Hall for food and a few drinks. Thanks Gabrielle Miller for organising.

Phew!

#mentalhealthawareness

Leicestershire Charity Event Photographer

East Midlands Charity Event Photographer, Leicestershire Based

Menphys Charity Business Sports Club

I was introduced to the Leicestershire Charity Menphys via my good friend Chris Cain from Kazzoo IT, during Chris’s headshot session he mention a charity hike up Scafell Pike in aid of Menphys.

Menphys is s children’s charity working with disabled children based in South Wigston here in Leicestershire.

During the hike, I was introduced to a number of other businesses and Liam Deacy, the head fundraiser at Menphys. I recognised his face, but couldn’t place him.. After a slightly odd conversation in the car park it turns out his uncle is a singer and we were in the same band together in 1996-2001!

Menphys have an amazing business sports club, where for a nominal fee you can join and attend 4 meeting a year with a sporting personality. There is a 3 course dinner, a presentation by the sports person then some question and answer time. Right at the end there is a photo opportunity, which is where i come in!

I photograph the entire evening, but my favourite part is the meet and greet at the end of the night. I use a simple studio light set up against the Menphys backdrop to get a nice clean look. All of the edited photos are available via my private gallery and from Menphys the day after the event.

Here are a few images from the events i’ve shot for Menpys in 2022.

National Space Centre - Mental Health Week

Mental Health Awareness Week 2022

Leicestershire Charity Photographer

As some of you will know, I do quite a bit of work (paid and pro bono) for the Leicester mental health charity LAMP.

In April I was asked my Matt Barton from LAMP if I’d be interested in recording a short 3-5 minute video at the National Space Centre for national mental health week. The video would be about how astronaut’s cope with loneliness and their mental wellbeing in space. This tied in with the their theme, to take LAMP to the Moon. 

A meeting was held with key staff from the Space Centre, Matt and myself. It was soon apparent that one video would not be enough, we would need FIVE!.

This worked quite well as LAMP could release one everyday of the week during mental health week… The only issue was the time restraints in getting it filmed, edited and delivered as we were getting close to the start of mental health week.

Filming was done on a Wednesday, most of the edits were completed on the Thursday and Friday with only a couple of revisions required from the Space Centre and LAMP.

I’m really happy with how these turned out and the response to them has been positive.

Here they are below.

If you are looking for something similar for your charity or business please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos courtesy of Greg Hollingsworth, and ambassador for LAMP and the director of Hollingsworth’s, specialist commercial and litigation solicitors in Leicester.

Myself and Greg Holllingsworth also put on a charity curry night at Cusine of India in Wigston.. we asked local businesses for some raffle donations, I got in touch with my old singer Shona so we could perform a few songs before dinner… 

We raised just over £1000 for this great charity, here are a few photos from the event. 

During this week we also completed a series of runs or walks, mainly in 5km chunks.. Everyone who took part recorded their activities on the LAMP Strava group, and the aim is to reach the moon before July 20th, which is the Apollo 11 Landing in 1969.