Pilot to pay a flying visit to promote mental health charity
GUERNSEY will be included as part of a young pilot’s bid to fly around 20 different locations in the UK and Channel Islands for charity.
Lyle Weir, 24, from Gloucester will be dropping by the island on the second day of his challenge – expected to be on Friday 2 September – to raise money for mental health charity The Mix.
‘Mental health has affected everyone at some stage in their lives, including me, yet I believe it is still a very misunderstood, underestimated and dangerous killer that is hardly spoken about,’ he said.
‘I was planning on doing something to celebrate me finishing my training and I was also thinking of a charity event and so it all kind of fell into place.’
Mr Weir anticipates that the whole challenge will rack up 40 hours of flying and hopes to achieve this in six days by sticking to a timetable that he has been planning for the past six months.
He thinks that some landings will be just a fuel stop, and some he hopes to spend a couple of hours speaking to people who live there.
He hopes to spend a little time in Guernsey.
Mr Weir’s dream of being a pilot came from spending time with his grandad. When his grandad died, Mr Weir’s mental health took a hit, and he said that while he was grieving, he realised there was an underlying depression that had been present for a while and wouldn’t go away.
He has a TikTok account called weir_airborne with more than 10,000 followers where he will be documenting his journey in the run up and during the charity flight.
‘Everyone knows someone who has been affected by mental health,’ he said.
‘I chose The Mix as the charity to support because it’s a digital support service which makes it much more accessible, and it covers such a wide variety of mental health issues.
‘Often charities focus on anxiety or depression, whereas The Mix is a lot broader.’
Michael Thelwall, head of fundraising at The Mix, said: ‘We’re delighted that Lyle is taking to the skies to raise money for vital mental health services for young people. By fundraising for the UK’s leading digital support service for under-25s, Lyle’s charity flight will help to support our life-saving services, so The Mix is always there for young people when they need us the most – via our website, over the phone or on social media.’
n Anyone willing to donate to Mr Weir’s charity flight can do so at https://www.gofundme.com/f/weirairborne
