Two young men from Penarth have raised over £1,600 for the mental health charity Mind, smashing their original £300 target.

Stanwell schoolmates Jacob Rhys Mills and Sam Birch-Hurst ran 300 miles over 30 days between them in an effort to raise both money and awareness for mental health.

They set out on their final run of the challenge last Wednesday from their respective university houses in Cheltenham and Swansea.

"We recognised that everyone during COVID-19 is having a few more struggles with mental health than usual," Jacob tells Nub News over Zoom.

"People I know personally have said they are feeling isolated and lots of people don't have anyone around. We just wanted to raise awareness and help people not feel alone."

"Pushing yourself through the daily five miles is a mental challenge in itself," chimes in Sam.

"We're not runners at all, but we sort of picked it up in lockdown, so we've found that the challenge has been good for our own mental health too."

Sam, a psychology student, is no stranger to the danger of mental health issues.

But both say it was lockdown and the surge of mental health awareness that made them choose Mind and motivated them throughout the challenge.

"Mind provides a lot of resources and have a helpline, so the money will go towards funding that," says Sam.

"When people don't know where to go, Mind offers support to those people."

"They also do a lot of research into the psychology behind mental health and how it's evolving in our modern world and with COVID", continues Jacob.

"But it was mainly the helpline that made me really want to support Mind."

The past year has been a difficult time to be a student - 73% say their mental health has declined in lockdown.

But Jacob, a landscape architecture student, says the challenge has helped him through this difficult time.

"It's nice to normalise speaking out about how you feel. The feedback we've had has shown us that people have enjoyed us interacting throughout.

"We've updated people with distances and people have been writing in saying how Mind have helped them - a few of my mum's friends have been helped by this charity," he continues.

"So it's really humbling to know how vulnerable we all are and how much everyone wants to be together, and I didn't expect it really."

To donate or find out more, follow THIS link.