Mum, 40, taking on ultramarathon from Durham to London then running London Marathon in memory of cousin lost to suicide

A woman who lost her cousin to suicide aged 32 has raised nearly £70,000 of her £100,000 target for mental health charity Mind, and is about to embark on an epic run, walk and cycle from Durham to London before tackling the London Marathon for the eighth time.

Ruth Wilson, 40, is in the latter stages of training for her 330-mile “Mind over Mileage” challenge from her hometown of Durham to the start line of the London Marathon, which she’ll complete in five days before taking part in the race on the sixth day – Sunday April 26.

Ruth, who is the college head at John Snow College, Durham University, has been fundraising for Mind since 2018 through various events and challenges, though her 2026 feat will be the most demanding to date.

“It is a really epic challenge,” Ruth, mum to an eight-year-old daughter, told PA Real Life.

“The magnitude of that is very much hitting home at the moment.”

“I want it to be really hard,” she added.

“I want it to be about reflecting that people who are living with mental ill health are doing really difficult, hard, challenging things every day, and sometimes that is putting one foot in front of the other.”

In August 2018, Ruth received a phone call telling her that her cousin Ged, then 32, had died by suicide.

“It still takes my breath away, saying that sentence,” she said.

“Ged was a person that, on the surface, was so outwardly confident and happy and engaged, and the life and soul, the person who would light up a room.

“He had a young family, had a great career… Receiving that phone call to say that somebody you love and care about has taken their own life, I don’t think that’s anything you could ever prepare for, but I also don’t think it’s anything you ever get over.”

In her grief, Ruth decided to try to raise some money for the mental health charity Mind in Ged’s memory. She ran her first ultramarathon, a 100km run from London to Brighton, raising around £4,000.

“It was fantastic to recognise him,” she said.

“It was a really good way to talk about the fact that I’d lost someone to suicide.”

However, after completing the challenge, Ruth said she “still felt so hollow”. She knew nothing would take her pain away, but she felt inspired and compelled to do more for Mind, to help prevent other families from going through what she and her family did in losing Ged.

“I kept on keeping on, on the basis that all I felt I could do was attempt to try and utilise my own grief, my own lived experience, to try and prevent, for want of a bit of a word, other families potentially going through what my family were at the time,” Ruth said.

“The challenge absolutely snowballed, and eventually became a quest to raise £40,000 before I was 40 – Ged and I should have been 40 six weeks apart.”

Around a year ago, when Ruth was approaching her 40th birthday, she had raised nearly £60,000 for Mind through physical challenges such as the London Classics, bake sales, university charity balls, and even a 15,000ft tandem skydive – smashing her original target.

Having seen how her fundraising had brought people together and opened up conversations about mental health and the impact Mind had had in her community and at the university, she decided to up the ante, and set a new goal of £100,000.

When Ruth learned she had been given a Mind charity place in the 2026 London Marathon, she realised she “couldn’t simply rehash the plan” and decided to make this her biggest challenge yet.

“So, in my infinite wisdom, I’ve decided to run, walk, cycle from Durham city, where I live, essentially to the start line of the London Marathon,” she explained.

“And the plan is to do that over five days, and then on day six to complete the marathon itself.”

Ruth’s route from Durham to London will be around 330 miles, and she will cycle most of it on a low-incline route to try to save her legs as much as possible before race day.

She’ll go from Durham to York, York to Lincoln, Lincoln to Peterborough, Peterborough to Cambridge, then Cambridge to London, and hopes to visit local Mind centres in each city she stops in along the way.

“My husband has just been unbelievable throughout all of these challenges,” Ruth said of her husband Andy Wilson.

“I did promise him at the finish line of last year’s London Marathon that it was my last ever London Marathon, so you can imagine his face when I said: ‘I’m going to do it again, but also I’m adding on this epic endurance challenge’!”

Her eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, has also been very supportive of her mum’s endeavour, and Ruth said they have “had some really amazing conversations about mental health and about how passionate I am about that, and she has turned into a dedicated fundraiser herself alongside this” – running three Junior Great North Runs for Mind.

By hitting her fundraising target of £100,000, Ruth hopes to not only support the continuation of Mind’s services but also directly impact her local community in the North East with expanded mental health support, working closely with the charity to support her local community.

According to Samaritans, the highest rate of suicide in England in 2024 was in the North East, with 15.1 deaths per 100,000 people. This number has increased from 14.4 deaths per 100,000 in 2023.

“I can’t bring my cousin back. I would give all the money away in a heartbeat, of course, if I could,” she said.

“But actually, those moments of connection, and those moments of people giving me the privilege of telling me their mental health story, that is the most hopeful and inspiring thing.

“I’m so proud that that’s what we’ve continued to create. People’s ability to have connection and community and find hope in really, really sad moments.”

“There’s many more of us out there who need support with our mental health than the statistics would ever prove,” Ruth added.

“I think that the conversations are great, but conversations need action, and action is going to take a continued swell of all of us saying, ‘OK, what next, what now?’.

“The saddest thing for me is those statistics on suicide in the UK, particularly young male suicide, of which, of course, my cousin Ged sadly is part of.”

According to Samaritans, males are three times more likely to die by suicide in England than females.

“More young men are still taking their own lives than we can allow,” Ruth said.

“As an educator, as a parent, as a member of humanity, I think we have to keep on.”

Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem, campaigning to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. For support, visit mind.org.uk, and to donate to Ruth’s challenge, visit Justgiving.com/fundraising/team40kbefore40.

When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.