tl;dr: I’m participating in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation’s Sunrise Challenge to raise money for mental health research and suicide preventing initiatives! For one week (May 31 – June 6), I’ll be waking up early with the sunrise and hope that you donate to CAMH!
I’m counting on your help to support an issue so dear and personal to me. Like this post, share this post, and maybe donate! But I hope you have the time to read my story.
http://give.camh.ca/goto/angelogiomateo
Cw: suicide, mental illness
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In 2018 and 2019, I participated in the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Ride Don’t Hide fundraiser. Last time, I rode 30km of hills (and tweaked my knee while training!) and we raised $1600 together!
Unfortunately, this year, I can’t participate in Ride Don’t Hide because of COVID-19. CMHA won’t be hosting an event for the fundraiser because of the pandemic. But I still want to help out and raise funds for important mental health initiatives.
This year, I’ll be participating in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation’s (CAMH) Sunrise Challenge to raise money for mental health research and suicide preventing initiatives! For one week (May 31 – June 6), I’ll be waking up early with the sunrise and hope that you donate to CAMH!
(Just to be clear, CAMH is different from CMHA!)
I know many people have different views on and issues with CAMH. I’ve had my own issues with the institution. And they can do a lot more work for Toronto and Canada
But CAMH is important to me. I believe that they saved me when I was at my lowest and I was involved in their outpatient program. I’ve seen the important research they do on mental illness and addiction. I see how they try to do work with the community. In the past few months, CAMH has tried their best to vaccinate people.
I believe they can do better work with more resources. If they ever offered me a policy job, I would say yes. I want to help with their mission because it’s important work and I think they’re doing the best they can.
I’ve been open about my journey with mental illness. I’ve been open about my experiences with suicide. I’ve sat in the darkness and wallowed in its waves. There are many times where I almost decided not to be here and let my demons take me. But I continue to fight. I’m alive.
But there are many others that are not with us anymore. How many students have lost their lives on the UofT campus? I have lost friends and heroes and I miss them every single day. They were loving, warm, kind people who loved life and celebrated it fully. Losing them haunts me every day.
I struggle with bipolar disorder everyday and I will live with it everyday, but I thrive with that reality. I’ve learnt how to take care of myself and now I’m taking the next steps in my life. I’m working hard to get my Master’s degree.
If you know me, I hate waking up early. I always sleep in. Part of it is not my fault: narcolepsy keeps me sleepy throughout the day. And when I’m depressed, my body is heavy and I just simply cannot get out of bed.
But I want to do this. I want to get up for the sunrise. I want to challenge myself to be up sometime between 5am-6am. When I can get up early, I can take JJ to the dog park or get work done in the morning or make myself a nice breakfast and take my time before class starts. During the challenge, I’ll try and wake up and take a picture on social media as proof.
I’m doing this for myself and my experiences with mental illness. I’m doing this for all of my friends who struggle with mental illness. And I’m doing this for everyone – especially a close friend – who are, unfortunately, no longer with us. Too many lives have been lost. It’s time to change things and I will do whatever I can.
If I challenge myself to wake up, I hope you can help me and donate whatever you can! Don’t just do it for me: do it for yourself, for your friends, for your family. I’ve started by donating $50. Maybe donate $10, or I hope you can match my $50 or – if you’re extremely generous – donate more than that. And then, I’m asking you to please share my story and my fundraising page with others all over social media.
My goal this year is $500. I’d like to raise as much money as I can, but I’ll keep the goal modest this year since I know finances might be tight for everyone in the pandemic. I don’t want to be overly ambitious and not reach the goal hahaha. But I hope we can all beat that. I would be extremely humbled and grateful for any and all of your support. I truly appreciate it.
There’s a poem by Robert Frost that I love that has kept me going the last few years. It goes, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep.” These words kept me alive, and it’s what inspires me to participate in this fundraiser.
Thank you for all of your help and I love you all!