On Sunday 1st September, three fantastic participants took part in the Big Half to raise money for Team Daniel.  Simon, Ieva and Nicola braved the heat and successfully completed the 13.1 miles around London raising over £1400 between them.  A massive thank you from all at Team Daniel.

On Sunday 12th May, Emma (Team Daniel CEO) and Jamie (one of Daniel’s closest friends) took on the Rob Burrows Half Marathon which took place across Leeds, raising over £560.  

On Sunday 21st April, six fantastic participants took on the gruelling 26.2 mile Virtual London Marathon on behalf of Team Daniel.  Armed with lots of treats, energy drinks and motivational music, the six walked for over 8 hours around the streets and countryside of Northamptonshire. Thank you to Gerry, Yvette, Jo, Jasmine, Kate and Nicole who raised over £500! 

The 2nd Morley 10km road race took place on Sunday 8th October.  The event which is run by Morley Running Club in conjunction with Morley Town Parish kindly decided to split the proceeds from the race between both TeamDaniel and MINT (Men in Need Together). The race raised us a whopping £1500. We cannot thank the organisers and all those that took part enough. 

We also had our own TeamDaniel runners taking part. Big shout out to Jamie, Lyndsey, Sarah and Emma who took on the challenge and raised an additional £250. 

On Sunday 23rd April six amazing volunteers took on the Virtual London Marathon for Team Daniel. 

Nicole, Layla, Kate, Vicki, Gerry and Yvette took on the 26.2 miles in their own way raising over £1000.  

Here’s why Kate Ellis wanted to take on the challenge for Team Daniel

“Team Daniel is a charity which means a lot to me personally because they aim to raise awareness of the need for mental health support in children and young adults. As a parent, I am constantly reminded of this need as the world can be a difficult place to navigate without guidance and support. For me there is nothing more important than protecting young people and reminding them to speak out and share their feelings. The virtual London marathon was an opportunity to walk for a cause which I feel passionately about. As an added bonus I got to take part alongside a small but very supportive group of people, one of whom I have known for 30 years plus. The event was memorable, hard work and felt like a great achievement. A day to remember forever. Thanks to Nic for the constant chat and to Layla for the foot spray and socks, I'll be forever grateful!”

We had seven amazing volunteers who took on the mighty challenge of the Virtual London Marathon on Sunday 2nd October on behalf of Team Daniel.  Such an incredible effort. A huge thank you to Tanya, Ruck, Zoe, Mark, Ioana and the two Michelles!  They raised a huge £1,571 between them.

Here’s why Michelle Manning decided to take on one of our charity places:

“I knew Daniels story through my friendship with Daniels Auntie Nicole. It was devastating for Daniels family and friends and it still remains a struggle for them today. What they have done is to turn that heart ache into something good so that no other child and family have to go through this by setting up Team Daniel, which is a small charity supporting children and young people in Leeds and London.

I have always wanted to take part in the London Marathon but was always unlucky in the ballot. When Nicole asked if I would take part for Team Daniel I had no hesitation in saying yes.

It has been an honour to take part in memory of Daniel and for my mate Nicole and the wonderful work Daniels mum Emma is doing along with the many Team Daniel volunteers and charity trustees.

 Children face many challenges in today’s world and it’s the small charities like Team Daniel that can provide the support needed in local communities.

Keep up the great work Team Daniel xx “

We had another full house at our Christmas Pottery Painting Workshop on Saturday 4th December with The Little Biscuit Pottery Painting Studio. Fourteen young people took part in the two-hour session which is a great way to help them reduce anxiety and low self-esteem. Feedback from young people was great:

“I extremely enjoyed this service the staff are amazing and make me feel so welcome. I really want to come again as I loved it so much. Thanks”

“Very fun all the time - would like to do every day”

“I really enjoy the painting experience, and everyone was very kind and welcomed us in. Due to me loving my time here I would love to come back”

We had a full house on Saturday 23rd October for our 2 hour Halloween Pottery Painting workshop. 14 young people attended and had a great time. Young people stated:

“Fun activities to do painting and talking to other people. Really lightened up my day. I would recommend and I would definitely come again”

“I really enjoyed my experience”

“It was a very fun and relaxing experience”

“It’s very fun and I’ve done a lot (dragon, clock and now sloth). I’d like to come to the place again ☺”

Team Daniel are delighted to announce that we have been successful in getting 5 charity places for the following London Marathon events:

Virtual London Marathon 2021

On Sunday 3rd October, ten amazing supporters of TeamDaniel took on the gruelling task of walking, running or jogging the 26.2 miles in this year’s virtual London Marathon. Craig McKenna, Ann Norton, Paul Norton, Vicky Sturgess, Jake Sturgess, Liz Knight, Rachael Watkey, Julie Mason and Kev Brown joined Daniel’s mum Emma and raised £4,149.96 to help support young people’s mental wellbeing. A massive thank you from all us at TeamDaniel. A huge achievement!

Here’s why Liz wanted to run for TeamDaniel:

“In the early hours of Sunday morning I did the London Marathon virtual event. Why you may ask? Well good question….

Some of you will know my mate Nic, she is a guru of all things East London and all round good egg. A few years ago her and her family’s lives were changed forever when she lost her nephew Daniel. Aged 15 Daniel took his own life as he couldn’t see a way out of the stress he was under brought on by his GCSE exams.

In his memory, TeamDaniel was formed by family and friends to raise awareness of teen mental health issues. My fundraising goal is modest. TeamDaniel is a small charity and small contributions make a huge difference.

Obviously, this was a big challenge as running isn’t exactly my thing. I’m built for comfort, not speed. During London lockdown I got into long distance walking as a way to stay active and since then I’ve slowly and steadily built up my ability to run (also slowly and steadily). Before training for this I had never ran more than 5km but in the last couple of years I’ve worked on my overall health so was now in a better position to give this a crack”

A massive thank you and congratulations to Viv and Clare who ran the Windsor Half Marathon on Sunday 26th September on behalf of TeamDaniel and raised over £1100 between them.

In partnership with The Little Biscuit Pottery Painting Studio, we offered a free pottery painting workshop on Wednesday 11th August for young people aged 12-18 years. Pottery painting is a great activity for all ages and can help reduce mental health issues, anxiety and low self-esteem. The 2-hour session allowed young people to paint their own piece of pottery including a range of animals, a car, an aeroplane or mug. The feedback we had from both participants and parents was great.

‘This was highly relaxing and a great way to spend time’.

‘It was relaxing, the members of staff were really nice and I would enjoy it if I came again’.

‘The staff members were really nice. It was fun, relaxing and enjoyable. I would like to come again’.

‘Thank you so much for having my daughter Katie today at the pottery painting class. She’s been having a tough time at school and was really nervous about coming today, but she loved it!’

Four TeamDaniel supporters took on The Vitality Big Half 2021 on Sunday 22nd August running 13.2 miles around some of London’s most iconic landmarks.  We were lucky enough to receive charity places and Tina, Barry, Kakie and Sam took up the challenge and raised £1,950. 

A massive thank you to our fundraisers. We are extremely grateful!

TeamDaniel are working with The Little Biscuit Pottery Painting Studio to deliver free Pottery Painting Workshops for young people aged 12-18 years. Pottery painting is a great activity for all ages and can help reduce mental health issues, anxiety and low self-esteem. The 2-hour sessions allow you to paint your own piece of pottery including a range of animals, a car, an aeroplane or mug.

To book your place, please contact Emma on 07787 278824

A big thank you to Welcome to Yorkshire for planting a tree in memory of someone that we lost.

On 1st August our volunteers came together to collect our certificates with our loved ones names on, a narrative broadleaf tree was planted at Broughton Hall on our behalf.

On Friday 26th March, we held our first ever-online quiz. We had 32 teams that took part and raised over £533, which was fantastic.

Thank you to everyone that took part and raised such a great amount. It is very much appreciated and congratulations to our two winners The Pepper Army and Team TP. Not only did they win, but they also both donated their prizes back to Team Daniel.

On 4th February, Team Daniel recognised Time to Talk day by encouraging people to ring or text a friend, email or send a letter.

Jessica entered the Leeds 10km that was due to take place on 22nd November but like most mass participation events, it was postponed to next year. However, Jessica decided to still run but would do it on her own and document her journey virtually.

Here’s why Jessica wanted to run for Team Daniel below.

“I started running couch to 5k in lockdown and fell in love with it so set myself the goal of 10k”.

“Hearing Daniel's story really resonated with me, as someone that has always struggled with anxiety, exams were a huge trigger throughout my life. The pressure to succeed and feelings of needing to be 'good enough' is overwhelming for so many children/young people, Daniel being just one of the thousands that feels there is no way out”.

“As an adult now going into teaching myself, I never want children/young people to feel that they are defined by a piece of paper. I hope that by raising money, I can help to inspire children and young people to speak up and know that they are not alone and there is way more to life than passing your exams”.

Team Daniel recognises Suicide Awareness Day on 10th September.

Due to the success of the previous two quiz nights we held another successful quiz on Friday 13th March 2020. Redbridge Sports Centre kindly donated the venue for free again along with a number of raffle prizes. We raised over £600 towards TeamDaniel’s aim of opening hubs for young people to access mental health support.

Every year Team Daniel run an annual event to celebrate Pancake Day. Pancake Day was Daniel’s favourite day of the year so we ask all of our followers to send in photos of their pancakes.

On Saturday 9th November 2019 TeamDaniel Trustee Vicki took part in TeamDaniel’s first ever swimming fundraising event at the Aquatics Centre in Stratford, East London., also known as the Olympic Pool. Participants can choose to swim either 1k, 2k, 5k or 10k.

As Vicki says, “I chose the 10k option, 6 miles, 200 lengths of the pool, at the time I signed up - I thought ‘why not it’s not that far, I have run 10k before ….’

“My training was a little bit hit and miss; however, I did some warm weather training a week before the event in the Canary Islands, the hotel swimming pool. I set myself a target of completing 6 miles in under 4hrs 30mins …Very happy to report that I was done and dusted in 4hrs 13 mins. I actually really enjoyed it and have signed up again for 2020. I raised just over £100.A massive thanks to everyone who supported me!”