The Aimee Howard Foundation was established to remove the financial barrier to mental health support services, for young adults between the age of 13 and 25. Founded in honour of Aimee Howard – who took her life on the 16th of June 2017, when she was just 17 years old – the charity seeks to prevent the same economic issues which prevented Howard from receiving treatment leading other young people from taking their lives. Charity founder and Howard’s high school boyfriend, Michael Larter, has himself found a measure of solace through running – which is why he is raising funds and awareness through a series of ultra-distance running challenges.
The charity will be formally launched with a 14 day, nearly 800 kilometre, run from Eden on The Bay, in Cape Town, to the Alexander Bay Border Control Post, on the South Africa/Namibia border. Dubbed Project SANAM800 Larter has dual aims for this challenge. “Initially the run to Namibia was conceived as a training run for the run across the United States of America which I’m planning for 2025,” Larter explained. “It soon snowballed into its own challenge though and became a great launching pad to start the Aimee Howard Foundation fundraising in earnest.”
“The cause is one that’s obviously close to my heart and I know that we can make a real difference in the daily lives of many struggling people,” he noted. “For me running is essential to maintaining a positive metal state and dealing with the stresses of life, but I’m well aware that exercise is just a small part of the overall picture. I hope that the Aimee Howard Foundation can help break the stigma associated with depression, help young people realise that they are not alone in their struggles and that they should talk about them, and should reach out for help. Then, vitally, the primary aim of the charity is to fund that professional help, in the form of paying for counsellors, psychologists, and psychiatrists.”
Larter will be joined on the Project SANAM800 run by fellow movement and mental health advocate Meagan Rioux. Photo by Justin Reinecke for zcmc.co.za.
“Our initial aim, during the SANAM800 run, is to raise $5 000 (US Dollars),” Larter stated. “But that is just phase one of the project. In the run across America, from Los Angeles to New York, we hope to tap into a larger, global, audience thereby extending the fundraising potential of the Aimee Howard Foundation.”
Larter will be joined on his run to Namibia by Meagan Rioux. Rioux is herself a vocal proponent of the benefits of movement for mental health, and as such founded the Show Up and Flow as well as the Show Up and Stroll yoga and walking groups in Cape Town. Together the pair will begin their run on the 26th of October 2024 with the first leg taking them from Eden on The Bay to Yzerfontein. Over the following 14 days they will average 55 kilometres a day and overnight in the West Coast towns of Langebaan, Elandsbaai, Lamberts Bay, Lutzville, Hondeklip Bay, Kleinsee, and Port Nolloth.
To stay up to date with Project SANAM800, the Run Across America, and the Aimee Howard Foundation follow Michael Larter on Instagram, @michaeluncharted. To support the fundraising effort, donate via Go Fund Me here. For more information visit www.aimeehowardfoundation.org or the run’s website www.sanam800.com.
