‘My dad wasn’t able to get the support he desperately needed’
Nicki Smith at her graduation with her dad, Steve Wilkinson(Image: Nicki Smith)
A Grimsby mum has achieved her ambition of gaining a place to run this year’s London Marathon after many years of trying. For Nicki Smith, it is not just about the kudos of partaking in the prestigious event; when the starter gun goes off, she will be carrying thoughts of her late father with her.
“I want to do this in memory of my dad,” said Nicki, who tragically lost her father, Steve Wilkinson, to suicide in 2018 when he was aged just 48. “My daughter was just ten months old at the time.
“I was an only child dealing with everything, and running kind of helped after all of that.” Nicki is running the marathon on Sunday, April 26, to help the charity Rethink Mental Illness.
On her fundraising page, which has a £2,200 target towards Rethink’s overall £80k goal, Nicki said: “Suicide is the biggest killer of men in their 40s and it is so important to have access to resources and support.
“My dad wasn’t able to get the support he desperately needed, mental health services in this country are under-staffed, under-funded and vastly under-appreciated. That is why I am taking part in this event – to help Rethink Mental Illness continue its mission of improving the lives of those affected by mental illness.
Nicki Smith and her daughter after the Humber Coastal half-marathon, Cleethorpes, last year(Image: Nicki Smith)
“Maybe our donations can mean that someone gets the help they need, when they need it.” Nicki said contributions would help provide vital services such as support groups, and educational resources for individuals and families affected by mental illness.
“Together, hopefully, we can make a difference.” Nicki has previously run a half-marathon and takes part in Tape2Tape events, including the Ørsted Great Grimsby 10k, which she has been running since 2020.
But as running goals go, London is the one, she said, being hopeful of completing the race in around four-and-a-half to five hours. “I’m training a lot, four runs a week.
“I’m on a teaching placement at a school, which means I’m there five days a week, and I work in the evenings as well. It’s a case of fitting it all in.”
Nicki, who has spent ten years working with children with SEN, was 25 when she lost her father. “He had quite a hard upbringing,” she said.
“He was a foster child – his foster parents were amazing – and then he was a single father to me. My mum kind of decided she didn’t want to be my mum when I was two-and-a-half and my dad brought me up on his own.
“It was properly out of the blue when he took his own life. He was quite excited about being a grandad and when my daughter was born he was at my house pretty much every day, without fail.
Steve Wilkinson with baby Nicki …(Image: Nicki Smith)
… and with his baby granddaughter(Image: Nicki Smith)
“He did have a lot of trouble finding his feet after an injury at work. There was no support for him.
“The man at the JobCentre came to his funeral because he said he felt like he had let him down so much.” Nicki said: “There’s the guilt people feel when they lose a loved one the way I did.
“Running and fundraising helps alleviate some of that guilt for me. I know really that there’s nothing I could have done, but that doesn’t help the guilt.
“Fundraising to try and help others not go through the same thing as me helps a lot.” Nicki said she had always been interested in mental health, having studied clinical psychology at university.
“I applied for a charity place in the London Marathon with Andy’s Man Club (AMC), but was unsuccessful. I thought, if I’m running in memory of my dad, it needs to be for a mental health charity, which is why it’s so good that it’s for Rethink Mental Illness.
“I got the call the day before my daughter’s birthday and they emailed me a message to say I’d made it into the race for Rethink because someone had an injury. I was sat in my car crying; I just thought, this is really, really weird.”
Nicki said: “Over the next few weeks I’ll be fundraising and it’s also about getting that awareness out there, that there are places like AMC and that Samaritans have free numbers you can ring.”
Did you know you can make Grimsby Live a preferred source of news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here .