A CHEPSTOW woman who battled her way through mental illness will take part in a charity’s gruelling 24 hour mountain walking challenge in May.

Louise John will undertake the Mind 3000 challenge on the Pen y Pass in Snowdonia with 23 others, including the TV presenter Matt Johnson.

Another team, which will also raise funds for the charity, will undertake a similar challenge in Keswick in the Lake District.

Both teams will walk for a whole day, trudging up steep inclines throughout the night in potentially difficult weather conditions.

The 27-year-old started training for the walk in January – and said that living in Chepstow is helpful because of the number of hills she can walk up. So far she has trained for around five hours at a time but before the trek she will be undertaking walks of eight to 10 hours.

Mrs John, who works as a regeneration officer for the Forest of Dean District Council, had no personal experience of mental illness until she started at Manchester University when she was 18, beyond the knowledge relatives had suffered their own problems.

She said: “I thought it might have been homesickness but it got progressively worse. I looked at moving out of the halls and moved into private accommodation and it got a bit better.

“I didn’t know what was wrong. I just couldn’t get myself out of the low.”

By the end of her first term she went back to her parents and was offered medication and then reached her lowest ebb, contemplating suicide.

Eventually, she was able to turn to a friend, Gareth, who was also from Chepstow and began to manage her mental health, helping her to complete her planning degree. Mrs John later married him. He was in the year above her at Chepstow School and remains a support.

Last year, she decided to lose weight. Her husband had taken her to an outdoor play centre but when she found she couldn’t hoist herself up to complete one of the tasks, she suffered a panic attack shortly afterwards.

Since then she has lost just under four stone and has dropped from a size 20 to a size 14.

All the people who are taking part in the challenge have a strong connection to Mind. Many, like Mrs John, have a personal experience of mental health problems; others have lost relatives to suicide.

To donate to Mrs John’s fundraising, visit mind.org.uk/louisej

For more information about the Mind 3000, visit mind.org.uk/3000s; for its Infoline number call 0300 1233393; or visit its website at mind.org.uk