A MAN who is running a marathon a day for seven days in memory of his friend who committed suicide, believes more should be done to encourage depression sufferers to talk about their problems.

In what he has coined as ‘My Big Year’, Tom Hunt, from Worcester, starts the seven-day 185-mile Offa’s Dyke trail today (July 2), completely self-supported.

The 26-year-old is hoping to raise £2,000 for mental health charity MIND after close friend Nathan Tomkins died in 2016.

“I lost a dear friend to mental health issues after choosing to take his own life.

“He was an amazing man, unique and at times, a bloody fool in the most amazing ways, but he was loved by everyone."

Referring to mental health, Tom continued: “Nobody talks about it enough and it’s such a shame. I wish he had said something to me. It was a shock.”

Tom said he went through a spell of depression himself earlier in life and admitted if he had not spoken about it to friends and family, “it could have escalated massively”.

“I spoke about it and did certain things about it, like taking on endurance challenges and it’s all helped me.”

Tom and Nathan met when they were five or six-years-old at scouts and completed several endurance challenges together, including the Three Peaks.

Nathan even carried Tom’s 10kg backpack along with his own towards the end because his friend was struggling.

“I have now chosen to fill my life with adventures, friends and experience, and I owe a lot of this to him,” said Tom.

Tom has described himself as going “from non-runner to ultra-runner” – having only taken up the hobby last summer.

“I’m pretty new to this whole game – I haven’t even run a marathon yet,” he admitted.

Having done 13,000 miles of training, Tom has suffered “copious amounts of injuries”.

“It’s just getting used to the pressure on the legs and the pounding,” he said. “It’s a shock to the body.

“I’ve had muscular injuries which have put me out for a few weeks, torn calves, tendons swelling up.”

Unlike many similar challenges, the Offa’s Dyke trail is not an organised event.

“The trail runs along the border of Mercia and Wales, it’s become this historic route but it’s all self-supported, so I have to manage where I sleep and eat and everything,” said Tom. “It makes for a bigger challenge.

“I’ve got a very basic tenting set up, I’ve even chopped my tooth brushes in half just to get rid of any excessive weight.”

The route will follow around 9000m of elevation in total which is higher than Everest.

Tom said he has been inspired by endurance competitor and adventurer Sean Conway, originally from Cheltenham.

“He’s a local guy, he inspired me to do this and made me feel an average human being can do something crazy.”

To prepare for the isolation of the challenge, Tom said he has been training to run without headphones.

“Being mentally prepared is as important in this challenge as being physically fit to do it.

“It’s not the London Marathon, where people are cheering me on all the way.

“I’ve got a couple of friends who are going to come up and meet me for lunch and whatever. At the end, you run into the sea and that’s the end.”

Tom has raised £1,000 of his goal and is looking to raise another £1,000.

“I will be wearing a tracker, so if you wish to take part in a small segment of my trip then please message me, the idea is to promote people to talk about mental health and would love for people to share their stories and challenge themselves,” he said.

Tom will also be cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats in September.

You can sponsor Tom at justgiving.com/fundraising/thomas-o-m-hunt or contact him on tommyhunt7492@gmail.com.