“I genuinely believe that running saved my life.”
A powerful statement, but one which has underpinned nearly a decade of recovery for Andy Jarvis.
And one which will be marked in some style when he takes on the London Marathon in aid of Wolves Foundation in April, ten years on from reaching his lowest ebb and battling with mental health and addiction.
“I was struggling and using alcohol as a crutch to manager my mental health,” says Andy.
“It all came to a head and I had to take some time off work and didn’t really know what to do with myself.
“I knew I needed to do something, and while I’ve played a bit of football in the past, I’ve never really been a gym person.
“So, I decided to do couch to 5k, initially on a treadmill, because I wasn’t confident running outside amongst people.
“Doing couch to 5k on a treadmill was tough, but it was a great stepping stone, and then I went on to doing the Park Run at West Park.
“I met so many influential people and it gave me a platform to start talking about my mental health, about where I was at the time.
“And it just led on from there.”
It certainly did.
Having started to feel comfortable running 5k, soon that become 10k, at the annual event in Birmingham, and, before long, a half marathon was the new ambition.
So it was that in 2018 Andy completed the Wolverhampton Half Marathon, for the Teenage Cancer Health Trust, in memory of his niece Victoria.
And once he could do a half, the natural next step? Well, that was a Marathon. Not just for the achievement and sense of accomplishment that it brought. But also, for the benefits to mental and physical health associated with the training.
“It was the training that kept me on the straight and narrow really – the discipline I had to show to get into it,” Andy confirms.
“It doesn’t happen overnight, you have to build up to it, and that really helped me.
“That was how I started to put the relationship between training and the day-to-day of managing by mental health and addiction.
“In a way I think doing a marathon is comparison to life. It’s not just about the day, it’s the journey with all the training.
“In marathons, as in life, there are ups and downs, and there have been points where I have wanted to quit, but you have to keep going, and overcome the challenges.
“Nothing happens overnight, you have to really work towards it, and because that was how it was going with the running, I tried to adapt that into my everyday life.
“So, even now, I try not to think too far ahead, and just think of that one day at a time.
“Control what you can control now, and tomorrow will look after itself.
“As my journey progressed, It made me realise what I was before I started running. I realised that I had just got lost a little bit.”
Andy has kept the photographic evidence from the time before he started running. Those images offer concrete proof as to the positive impact these last nine years have delivered. Losing a large amount of weight, now eating, sleeping and looking after himself far better, and feeling so much more positive about the challenges of life. He has also now been abstinent from alcohol for four years.
Things are certainly very different now to how they used to be.
But his biggest achievement is the one you can’t see. The transformation in his mental health. The confidence, clarity, and resilience he has gained have become the most powerful changes of all.
“In addiction, it got to the point where I didn’t really know how bad it was, until I looked back afterwards,” he explains.
“There have been ups and downs, and I’ve had relapses and periods where I haven’t run, but that always gives me the resilience to bounce back.
“Keeping on running has helped me beyond the scientific benefits, it is the connections of the people I have made and the opportunity to talk to people while running along.
“I’m quite open now, more open that I have ever been about my struggles, even though I am still learning myself how to manage it all.
“It has given me a routine and a day-to-day focus, has managed my stress levels and just given me so much more confidence.
“I’d say I’m in the best place now that I’ve been in my whole life.
“I am very proud of what I have managed to do, it has taken me a long time to get here and it’s also thanks to having a great support network around me.
“From where I was before, to where I am now, I’m not the same person.
“I don’t know where I would be without running, and that is why I say it, I genuinely believe that running save my life.
“Within the last five years I have lost my brother, sister, Dad and father-in law.
“Running and the community helped me get through those times without reaching for the bottle – instead I reached for my trainers.
“It made me stronger because I know that if I can get through that without drinking, then I can get through anything.”
And so now, alongside his regular running, which includes volunteering for a local mental health organisation by organising a Couch to 5k programme at West Park, comes a special hat trick of marathons, which will ultimately provide a fitting milestone to Andy’s ten years as a running man!
That poignant milestone will be accompanied by raising money for the Foundation, in part due to his admiration for the Head 4 Health programme, which helps improve health and wellbeing via a series of activities and informal workshops.
He is also well aware of the power and importance of the work of charities, having been supported by SUIT and Recovery Near You when facing previous challenges.
Andy has already completed the Snowdonia Marathon last month, will then tackle Boston in Lincolnshire next April, followed two weeks later by the big one, the London Marathon, ten years to the weekend since he completed his first 5k.
“Having been given the opportunity to run the London Marathon for the Foundation, I wanted to make it a celebration because of it being the ten-year anniversary of my first 5k,” says Andy.
“I have decided to put the three together – Snowdonia, being one of the toughest, Boston, one of the flattest and fastest, and then London, the biggest!
“It feels poetic really, being able to celebrate my journey as well as helping raise funds and awareness for the Foundation.
“I was really honoured to be asked by the Foundation to run for them, and it will be an honour to wear that Wolves badge around London on the day.
“It’s funny because I looked back at my emails the other day and I very nearly came to Head 4 Health back in 2019, it was only my anxiety that stopped me.
“I know how important the group is, particularly for men, bringing them together and giving the platform to talk, which is so important, to realise that you’re not alone.
“The work the Foundation deliver in so many different areas is so very important, and they provide services in the community which are otherwise lacking.
“This is the club I have supported all my life, and I get to run the London Marathon with that badge on my chest.
“The two things that I love the most – football and running – have come together!”
- Want to support Andy’s marathon effort and the work of Wolves Foundation? Click here to visit his fundraising page.
