Borough teacher's fund-raising challenge for mental health charity

He has so far done more than 8,000 himself and has recruited students and staff at the Leigh secondary school to join in with the challenge.

Mr Lycett said he wanted to support the charity which raises awareness of mental health problems among young people after seeing the effects of lockdown on pupils at the Manchester Road high school.

It is now hoped that the kick-up challenge will be the first of many charity events at Bedford High as the concept has struck a chord with people.

Mr Lycett said: “We’re trying to get most of the kids involved. Once they’ve done their kick-ups they take a selfie with how many they’ve done.

“One person has done one so far, another has done more than 2,000. The kids are really getting into it now they’re back in school. We’re kicking bad thoughts out of bed with this.

“Students have been struggling with lockdown, I’ve realised that as a teacher.

“We forget how important the social aspect of school is for young people. Seeing them coming into school now and talking to their friends you can see they are so much happier. I’ve noticed a massive difference.

“Mental health problems among kids aren’t really spoken about that much so I did a bit of research and came across the website for Young Minds.

“It was really bright and colourful which I thought was fantastic.

“We should speak about mental health in a more positive light and not be afraid to talk about it. If we can start with the younger generation that could then filter through into adulthood.”

Mr Lycett set an initial fund-raising target of £250 but was over half way to that within the first 10 days of the challenge.

It is now his intention to keep the fund-raising for YoungMinds going throughout the year and the process of coming up with different projects and challenges is under way.

Wigan Council has also taken an interest in Mr Lycett’s social media posts about the challenge and he says there are now talks about rolling the idea out to other schools across the borough.

He said: “It started off as just an idea but has blown up into something that could potentially be quite big, which is great to see.”

To find out more or donate, visit https://justgiving.com/fundraising/Mr-Lycett

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