Hello, we are four medical students from Singapore and in May 2016, we will be taking part in a Desert Race, as a team called “Mental Muscle”. The race will be held in Namib Desert, found in Namibia, south of the African Continent. It will span 7 consecutive days, where we have to cover a total distance of 250km each.

We will be running to raise funds and awareness for Mental Health. In our society, many do not understand mental illnesses as much as other ailments of the body. As a result, there is a stigma that surrounds mental health and it has very real effects on people who have mental illnesses, even preventing them from seeking help. Our team hopes to address this stigma.

To this end, we are very privileged to share that we will be working closely with the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) as our fundraising beneficiary. SAMH is the oldest community mental health agency in Singapore. It is a non-profit, voluntary welfare organisation seeking to promote mental health in the community and improve the rehabilitation and reintegration of persons with mental illness.Our goal is to raise $50,000 for SAMH and the funds will be used in 3 areas: 
1. Building a vocational training school for teenagers and young adults affected by psychiatric conditions to equip them with skills required in the workforce, enabling them to integrate into society. 
2. Increasing SAMH's awareness campaigns including roadshows and health talks. 
3. Sustain SAMH’s existing services and facilities.

From now till May 2016, our team, consisting of Nicholas Eu, Jonathan See, Stephen Hwang and Jon Tan, will be training hard and working diligently to realise this dream. We have been making small steps towards this goal, and you can follow us on the following platforms for more information and regular updates about our team, our training progress and awareness campaign: 
• Official website – www.mentalmuscle.org 
• Facebook page – www.facebook.com/mentalmuscle 
• Instagram – www.instagram.com/mental.muscle 
• SAMH website – www.samhealth.org.sg 
• Our email (ask us any questions) – [email protected]

If you believe in our team and our cause, we hope you will consider donating and contributing to our fundraising goal of $50,000. Every donation counts towards making our campaign a success.

From the very bottom of our hearts, we thank you for supporting us along this journey. Every kind contribution made will be received with our deepest gratitude.

To end off, here is some food for thought:
Psychologist Guy Winch, in his TED talk made an interesting point. It is easy for us to go to someone with a mental health issue and say, "It's all in your head, why don't you just snap out of it?". Yet how often do we walk up to someone with a broken leg, and say, "It's all in your leg, why don't you just walk it off?" Mental illnesses are fundamentally similar to many diseases we know of, with well studied disease mechanisms and treatment options available. Why then do we find ourselves less empathetic towards people with mental illness? Why are we so eager to treat heart diseases or diabetes and yet so reluctant to approach mental illnesses?