A WOMAN is planning to walk from Edinburgh to York to raise money for a mental health charity after witnessing the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns on her family, friends and neighbours, and herself.

Rachel Boani, 21, of Acomb, who is a student at Edinburgh University, is planning to make the trek of more than 200 miles from Edinburgh Castle to York Minster over 12 days at the end of July.

The former Manor CE and All Saint’s RC School pupil says she has already been training for the expedition by walking, biking and running all over Edinburgh, including walking the ‘Seven Hills of Edinburgh’ challenge, which took her just over five hours to complete.

She says she will be raising money for the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) and has already attracted more than £800 in sponsorship.

“SAMH fights to improve the mental health care in Scotland and works with young people and adults to offer support and advice,” she said.

“The issue of mental health is important to me, having seen friends and family members suffer particularly badly during this pandemic, whilst personally experiencing mental health struggles myself.”

She said the biggest impact of the lockdowns on her and and other students had been loneliness, as their independence had been stripped away. “The loneliness has been horrible,”she said.

She felt old people had also suffered badly from loneliness and isolation, and recalled how an elderly veteran of the Second World War had come out of his York home on VE Day and spoken to his neighbours, saying that for him, the pandemic had been worse than the war.

“It brought tears to people’s eyes,” she said.

She said that to keep her friends and family up-to-date with training and announcements, she had set up an Instagram page @edinburgh_york_charity_walk, where she had posted routes with photos and suggested some podcasts she had been listening to along the way when training.

* To back Rachel’s walk, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/edi-york-walk