A Middlesex University student walked the 20km GLOW route from Battersea Park in four hours for Mental Health UK. A 10k winter walk follows on 3 December.

Battersea Park filled with neon T-shirts, music and LED lights on the afternoon of Saturday 10 October as walkers set off on GLOW London, Mental Health UK’s night walk for mental health. Walkers could choose a 5k, 10k or 20k route, the longest leaving the park and following the River Thames through London after dark.

Jessica Martinello, a third-year journalism and creative writing student at Middlesex University, walked the 20k and sent Wandsworth News her account of the night. She finished in exactly four hours.

The quick answer

  • What: GLOW London, a night walk organised by Mental Health UK, starting in Battersea Park.
  • When: Saturday 10 October; Jessica set off with the second wave at 3.30pm.
  • Routes: 5k, 10k or 20k, the 20k leaving the park and following the Thames.
  • What the money does: entry fees and sponsorship fund support helplines and advice hubs, Jessica writes.
  • Next: a 10k Glow Winter Walk from Whitehall on Thursday 3 December at 6.30pm, £25 entry and a £150 fundraising minimum, according to her account of the event page.

“An absolute explosion of neon”

“By the time the clock hit 15:30 on Saturday, 10 October, Battersea Park didn’t look like itself anymore,” Jessica writes. “It was an absolute explosion of neon T-shirts, loud music, and flashing LED lights. I was standing in the middle of the second wave of walkers, and honestly I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer energy of it all.”

The point of the event, she says, was “to literally light up the dark autumn night and bring a very quiet crisis out into the open.”

She chose the longest route. “I bit the bullet and chose the 20k. Looking back, walking that far through London after dark takes a bit of grit, and it took me exactly four hours to cross the finish line.”

Nobody walked alone

What struck her most was how many people came on their own. “Walking 20km by yourself sounds lonely, but the vibe on the night was so warm and welcoming that you could see people instantly gaining confidence,” she writes. “Nobody was truly walking alone; if you started by yourself, you ended up chatting with a stranger by the third mile.”

Why people walked

Jessica sets the walk against the national figures. She cites NHS England performance data showing a record 2.2 million people in contact with NHS mental health services in a single month, and figures from the charity Mind that 1 in 4 adults face a mental health problem each year, with 20% dealing with common conditions such as anxiety and depression. She adds that nearly half of people living with chronic stress name money worries and the cost of living as harming their wellbeing.

She also points to a Mind funding analysis: mental health accounts for about 20% of the UK’s sickness burden but receives less than 9% of NHS funding. “This is exactly why community-led events like this matter so much,” she writes. “The entry fees and the money we raised on the walk go directly to funding support helplines and advice hubs.”

The winter walk on 3 December

The October walk was not a one-off for World Mental Health Day. Jessica writes that a festive Glow Winter Walk follows on Thursday 3 December 2026, moving to Whitehall in central London and setting off at 6.30pm. According to the event page she consulted, it is a 10k route past the Christmas lights and festive markets, costs £25 to enter (a T-shirt and medal are included) and asks every walker to raise at least £150. Check the details with Mental Health UK before signing up.

What it means for you

  • If you walked from Battersea Park on 10 October and want to keep going, the winter walk is the next date in the series Jessica describes.
  • Know of another Wandsworth fundraiser or community event? Send us your news.

“There is always a community out there”

“By the time I finally finished my 20k, my legs were absolutely throbbing,” Jessica writes. “But standing there with my medal, the exhaustion didn’t really matter. It’s easy to feel isolated when life goes heavy, but looking back at that sea of glowing lights along the Thames, I realised something important: even in our darkest moments, there is always a community out there ready to walk with us.”