On Sunday 22 November, I’m taking on my biggest challenge yet: running 100 kilometres around a 400-metre athletics track to raise money and awareness for OCD UK.

My name is Harry Bishop, I’m 19 and have been diagnosed with OCD for over six years. For a long time, OCD affected the way I thought, behaved and had a massive impact on my day to day life. I know first hand how isolating and overwhelming it can feel to suffer from OCD.

However, over the past few years, with the support of my family and mental health professionals, I am now living life on my own terms and not OCD’s.

I’m taking on this challenge because I want to use my own experiences to make a difference. OCD is one of the most misunderstood mental health conditions out there with it heavily being stereotyped to being tidy or organised. The reality can be very different, and I want to help challenge those misconceptions, raise awareness and encourage more young people to speak up and seek the support they deserve.

The athletics track represents the repetitive and exhausting nature of OCD. For many people living with the condition, it can feel like being trapped in an endless loop of intrusive thoughts, doubts, anxiety and compulsions, constantly going around in circles and struggling to break free. By running 100 kilometres around the track, I hope to symbolise just a small part of what living with OCD can feel like, while showing that although OCD can make you feel trapped in a never-ending loop, it is possible to break free and live life on your own terms, not OCD’s.

Every donation will support the fantastic work over at OCD-UK!

Every lap has a purpose. Every loop helps raise awareness.

This is the OCD Loop.

Thank you for being part of it.