Daniel is a inspirational Year 13 student based in Didcot, Oxfordshire. After losing his best friend in 2019 he's made it his personal mission to highlight youth mental health and help local schools, groups and students by providing school essentials and helping with budgeting cuts.
In 2019 he ran a 5k obstacle colour run and raised £460 for the pediatric intensive care unit who cared for his friend. He then spent the summer baking and selling cakes and had a big cake sale and raffle to raise money for teacher training. Along with the hospital money, £1,750 was raised.
This additional money raised has gone into his school in Didcot, to pay for training in mental health first aid. Due to the recent pandemic the school was able to use this funding to pay for online staff training in mental health support for students. This meant 40 members of staff have received training, enabling them to help so many students now and in the future.
In January 2020 Markers for Mindfulness was started. He wanted to help local schools who are affected by budget cuts, ease the burden and raise awareness for student mental well-being.
Markers for Mindfulness has been encouraging the local community to recycle unwanted items such as pens and pencils, as well as donating new ones (glue sticks, notebooks, pens, whiteboard markers etc) all to be sent out to primary schools in Oxfordshire most affected by government funding cuts. By providing underfunded schools with basics, he hoped to help the schools free up a small amount of budget to be used for student mental well-being and support, but also take the opportunity to raise the important issue of youth mental health with the schools and students. These packages have been received with such surprise and overwhelming emotion by staff and the students.
So far 60 boxes have been sent to schools all over Oxfordshire (Didcot, Chilton, Milton, Hendred, Bicester, Chipping Norton, Faringdon, Banbury and other areas) boxes have also been sent further afield to London, Huddersfield and Grimsby.Daniel's family have also put tea, coffee and biscuits for the staff and have paid for postage of the boxes.
The project has also been helping individual students. During lockdowns many were homeschooling but unable to access the basics they would have in school. 100's of full pencil cases and notebooks were delivered to students in need. He has also helped Afghan and Ukrainian refugee students coming into the area to ensure they had everything they needed to start school locally. This has included school bags and water bottles.
The project continued to grow and Daniel is now being contacted by local councils and schools and families directly requesting boxes or individual packs. Especially with the cost of living crisis. This summer holidays alone over 50 individual packs have gone out to students ready for school in September. To date over £18,000 worth of stationery items have been sent out!
The great byproduct of this project is the sheer amount of items being saved from landfill and being recycled and put to good use by local schools. An estimation puts over half a ton of items recycled!
Daniel has started to hold events, most recently a 'Tea & Talk' event which aimed to bring people together to talk about mental health. It was a great success and he hopes to do more in the future. In September he will have a tombola stall at a local event. He is always working hard to raise money and keep his project going to ensure anyone who needs help can receive it.
