Never one to shirk a challenge, our Marketing Manager, Kenika Gumbs, has completed one of her toughest yet - the Manchester Half Marathon.
But as Kenika told her colleagues, she didn't do it for a medal, nor for a competitive time - she did it for a greater cause, remembering her roots and facing up to loss.
She says: "Every step I took was for something far greater than myself. I proudly carried the flags of Anguilla and Antigua & Barbuda - my two homes, my heart, my roots. So many people asked what my flag represented, and I loved every moment of sharing where I come from.
"This run was deeply personal. Over the years, I've faced so much loss - my cousin just last month from cancer, my grandpa earlier this year, one best friend from cancer, another best friend in a car accident, and my mum when I was young.
"The list, heartbreakingly, goes on. Grief changes you - it teaches strength, empathy, and resilience, even when it hurts the most.
"I hope I made my islands proud, because I know I made my mum proud."
Kenika chose to run for the MQ Mental Health charity, which funds vital research to better understand, treat, and prevent mental illness - a cause close to her own heart following her mental health struggles of the past, which she opened up about earlier this year.
She explains: "As a survivor of a suicide attempt, I know how heavy life can feel sometimes; feeling lost, confused and frustrated. But I also know the importance of finding purpose and turning pain into something powerful.
"I'm proud to be in this place in my life that I can talk about it now. My mental health issues came from the death of my mum. I learned all about it when I came to the UK, that is when I found out I had a problem and had to fix it.
"It's important to know it's normal not to be OK and shed tears now and again."
Kenika has raised £150 - and counting - for MQ Mental Health, whose research aims to:
- Create a better understanding of mental health by studying how and why conditions occur to speed up diagnosis, improve the search for better treatments and even find ways to prevent mental illness.
- Improve treatments. The charity says it believes everyone should have access to mental health treatment that works for them and is working hard to get more people the right treatment, faster.
- Prevent mental illness. Some 75% of mental health conditions start before the age of 18, says the charity, and can have lifelong impacts. Through research, it hopes for a better understanding who is most at risk and find ways to provide better treatments earlier - with the potential to transform lives.
Kenika first caught the running bug by doing the Cancer Research UK Race4Life alongside our HR Manager, Carole Hamnett-Sadler.
Now she's set her sights on a 10k run for Pancreatic Cancer at Media City in Salford next month (December) and is planning to do the Manchester Half Marathon for MQ Health again next year.