Eight friends cycle 300 miles in memory of Charlie Waller

Eight people who knew and loved Charlie are taking on a gruelling 300-mile cycle to raise funds for the Trust.

Thirty years ago, Charlie Waller graduated from Durham University. Charlie was a strong, popular, good-looking and kind young man with a close family. No-one foresaw that he would take his own life six years later, whilst suffering from depression.

In response to this tragic event, his family founded the Charlie Waller Trust and, in the intervening years, it has helped tens of thousands of young people manage their mental health better, offering training and resources to schools, families, colleges, universities and employers.

photo of young man, Charlie Waller, smiling

The pandemic has caused a spike in mental ill health — especially anxiety and depression — and yet it has also badly impacted fundraising.

On 9 June a group of people who knew and loved Charlie, all of them in their own words “now deep in middle age,” will don lycra and attempt to cycle 300 miles to Durham, to raise funds for the Trust’s vital work.

Zoom screenshot of 8 men wearing cycle helmets

They are Charlie’s brother, Richard Waller, and friends Jamie McCallum, Mark Durden-Smith, Gavin Owston, Tim West, Edward Longfield, Robert Jardine-Brown and Iain Weatherby.

Their spokesman told us:

“It will not be pretty. It will be painful. But every penny we can raise will go to fund the work of the Charlie Waller Trust, ensuring young people can get the mental health support they need.”

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