My Story

My entire life I have struggled with the way I look. The stark reality is that I always have and always will hate the reflection that looks back at me in the mirror. My obsession with how I believe the world see's me has led to numerous eating disorders - from the starvation of anorexia which inevitably had me hospitalised and in need of severe specialist health intervention to save my life, to the often not talked about exercise obsession which would see me working out tirelessly and micro managing every single item I allowed myself to eat. Even more recently during the pandemic, when I slipped into binge eating due to my lack of control and depression about what the world was going through. Whether small or big I have always lived under the shadow of a mental health disorder, one which I personally believe does not get the airtime or public discussion it so desperately deserves which is why, as a middle aged man who is currently not at his fittest, I have chosen to run the London Marathon for Seed Eating disorders.

We urgently need to lose the stigma around eating disorders so that people have the confidence to talk about them. We need schools to have the resources so that they can make eating disorders awareness part of the national curriculum and we desperately need charities like Seed who offer support to ANYONE affected by an eating disorder,

Seed is a small charity but with big ambitions so every penny raised has a significant impact to the welfare of many. Seed only recieve one place in the London Marathon every five years, so with the weight and honour of that on my shoulders, I want to raise as much as I can.

The money raised goes directly into the services Seed provide which includes; support groups, email and text buddies, telephone helpline, educational toolkit resources for schools, therapy services, online self-help support via the website, recovery after the recovery programme and many more.

I know that we are in a difficult place in the world right now and people do not have access to disposable income but it's often the charities who support the most vulnerable who get hit hardest so I passionately and politely ask for anything you can afford.

Seed receive no government funding yet change and often save the lives of many with their crucial work.

I am one of the lucky one's with family and friends who have supported me on every step of my recovery but many don't have that support group and I hate to think of one single child or young person hating themselves as much as I once did.

Thank you for whatever you could do to support us.

Joff Powell xx

PS and please cross your fingers for me on the 2nd October.... 26.2 miles is a long run for a man who prefers a large glass of wine at his age.