My name is Sam Layton and I am 27 years old. 

As I start my 345 Borough 2 Boro Marchester walk, I want to share this blog about who I am, what got me to where I am today and why I am doing what I am doing. 

Through my own lived experience of mental health issues as a teenager, I am using my voices and experiences in the hopes of improving the lives of those who may experience mental health issues in the future. 

With 2025 marking 10 years since the most difficult time in terms of my mental health, I wanted to set myself a challenge whilst highlighting how far I’ve come in life, which is how I came up with Borough 2 Boro Marchester. 

For each day of Borough 2 Boro Marchester, I will be posting blogs on a variety of topics surrounding long people’s mental health. 

Why Borough 2 Boro Marchester and who am I?

Having been born and brought up in Central London, my family moved to North London when I was five years old. From the outside looking in, I had a happy childhood. As I approached my teenage years and through adolescence, cracks began to show. Reflecting back on my past, there was many things I felt were missing in my life and I feel, over time, this slowly took a toll on my mental health. When I was around 15 years old, I feel I had a shift in terms of my mental health but I only truly acknowledged it at 16. In both life generally and in day to day situations, I began to simply space out. From going to family members houses most weeks at the age of 11, this began to stop once I was able to get public transport on my own at around 12 or 13 but I was still present at large gatherings like Christmas and New Year’s. By the time I reached 16, however, I stopped even being informed about family gatherings because it was clear that I had no interest in attending. 

Within school, I was never a high performer, was always struggling to concentrate and often would forget or choose not to complete my homework. At the age of 15, there was a significant change where I went from being 30+ minutes early to school to turning up 2 hours late. I would regularly zone out in class, with 10 minutes passing in the blink of an eye and the level of effort I put into my work was very little. Despite my poor attendance, this was never discussed by teachers within my school. 

Activities that I used to do as a hobby, such as cycling, started to become chores. Whilst I did still cycle from A to B, I stopped cycling just for the sake of cycling and the felling of enjoyment was lost. Rather than spending £10 to go to the bike shop to fix my bike when there was an issue, I would spend £30+ over multiple weeks taking public transport until I finally force myself to go to the bike shop. With nobody around me encouraging or supporting me in my hobbies, it further added to my reluctance to continue with them.

Whilst I wouldn’t say that I ever had big aspirations growing up, these dropped considerably. I never had aspirations for what I wanted to do in life; only ever what I wanted to study in the current or following year of school. From around 16, however, I started to question what was the point. Any aspirations I had weren’t supported by my parents. Every goal felt like a loosing battle either due to my own abilities, the lack of having access to the means or the lack of support from those around me.

From around the age of 16, thoughts surrounding methods of suicide often crossed my mind. Regardless of if it’s a method of suicide that many have attempted or if it is unheard of, methods of suicide would regularly cross my mind. 

Once I left school, I began to focus more on my mental health. I travelled a lot, tried new things and distanced myself from some of my triggers. Growing up in London, I decided to move away in 2021 once COVID restrictions started to ease. In order to move, I decided to job hunt across the whole of England where, if I found a suitable job, I checked the rental market in that area and, if I thought it was feasible, I applied for the job. Around a month later I managed to get a job in Middlesbrough, North East England. Having stayed in that job for over 3 years, I decided I needed a change and managed to find a job in Manchester, where I am currently living and working. 

With the distance between the 3 cities being 345 miles, I decided to do a walk covering the distance. 

Throughout the 17 days that I am walking, I will be posting daily content to share my experiences and raise awareness. 

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