Up and down the country university students are taking part in Minds’ ‘27 27’ challenge to raise awareness of the 27% of students who report mental health problems at university.
Journalism student, Ulani Seaman, of the University of Gloucestershire, is going that extra mile, running 127 miles across February and March.
“I think it will be a lot more striking on social media and raise an important message if I run more than that, so then I thought what can I do?”
“I can raise money by running 127 miles, so this month I’ll be running 100 miles and then over the first week and a half of March I’ll be running the 27 miles.”
The part-time fitness instructor has been pushing herself that little bit further by completing half marathons to clock the miles up.
“So far I have run 61 miles, and I did a half marathon last Saturday that got my miles up as well.”
“I’ve only ever ran one half marathon before Saturday which was back last year, and I’ve been running so much I thought I’m just going to go for it. I didn’t find it that hard, I expected for my legs to get tired half way through but it’s very interesting what your body can do when your mind is in the right place.”
“Which is so important because when your mind is healthy you can do so much more and exceed your own expectations.”
Seaman didn’t believe she would raise a huge amount of money, but she has smashed her target of a pound per mile, having raised £457.50 after just two weeks of fundraising.
“I didn’t have high hopes when I started, I’ve done small fundraising before but I’ve never shared it on my social media. Obviously, with Covid it’s such a difficult time for people that I didn’t know how generous people would be or how much people could afford to donate.”
“So I set my target as £127, but somehow I’ve raised over £400 already which I don’t really know how that’s happened. People have honestly been incredible and I’m very grateful.”

Having been amazed by the generosity of the people who have donated, Seamen will be rounding the total up to the next hundred pounds.
“So say if I raise £560 by the end of it, I’ll round it up to £600, so I’ll put a big donation in at the end. I don’t expect to raise much more because that’s such an incredible amount.”
The trainee journalist believes that exercise plays an important role in your mental well-being, having found her love of fitness during a difficult period in her life.
“About four years ago, I weighed quite a lot more than I do now, I was very unhappy and miserable. I didn’t quite know what to do to get myself out of it, so I signed up for the gym and said what everybody does and that this January I’m going to change.”
“I got into fitness classes, and I think how motivating the instructors were, it just encouraged me to keep going and I found such a love for it.”
“From that because I was putting so much work into it, I was offered the opportunity to instruct fitness classes, and I could be that person for somebody else and really inspire other people to make those changes in your mind.”
Seamen hopes to inspire people to make positive changes in their minds just like she did.