Great Bristol Run 2025: I'm running 500 miles to raise suicide awareness in the construction in industry

BristolWorld

Christ Rogers from Weston-super-Mare is taking part in this year’s Great Bristol Run half marathon as part of his 500 miles for 500 lives project.  On average, 500 people take their own lives annually in the construction industry.  Over 36 weeks, Chris is running 500 miles in full construction PPE to raise awareness and help start a conversation about suicide mental health within the industry.  He is aiming to raise £50,000 in the process for the incredible Mates in Mind charity which actively engages in address the stigma of poor mental health to promote positive mental wellbeing.

Transcript

00:00So my name's Chris Rogers. I'm running 500 miles for 500 lives, dressed in full PPE.

00:07It's Bristol, the Bristol Half Marathon is part of my event so I run a half marathon

00:11every week for 36 weeks and I'm currently week 10 in so yeah, I'll be in Bristol.

00:18And can you tell us a bit about why you run 500 miles for 500 lives?

00:24Yeah so basically on average 500 people take their own life every year in construction

00:30and it's a staggering statistic so I'm running all over the UK to try and raise awareness and

00:37to raise funds for Mates in Mind who's an incredible charity who do a lot of proactive

00:41work to reduce the number. And how have you trained for the 500 miles? It's really hard

00:50to train for it. I just got out running before Christmas before I started just in normal

00:56sort of trainers and stuff but I guess running in PPE you can't really train for. You've just got to

01:01put it on and get out the door which is what I've done and I've had a few struggles since I've

01:05started but it's easing off a little bit and luckily so far I have no injuries so

01:12I'm hoping that stays true. The experience has been overwhelming, a massive leak. I've had a lot

01:18of support from friends, family and a lot of strangers as well so I've got dedicated Instagram

01:23and TikTok accounts where I blog my runs. I talk about suicide, I talk about signs and symptoms,

01:27I talk about mental health. I've had people reach out to me in times of crisis. I've also

01:35throughout my event I've also had unfortunately I've had a friend take his own life so the event

01:41for me has been really really big for me personally but also I'm also seeing some difference that's

01:47being made and people are talking as well which is amazing so it's been a journey

01:54so far and I've got a long way to go.

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