London landmarks wear Heads Together headbands for ‘mental health marathon’
Howard Lake | 22 April 2017 | News
London landmarks have started wearing Heads Together headbands, to match the headbands being provided to all 39,000 runners in this weekend’s Virgin Money London Marathon. The marathon is the world’s largest one-day charity fundraising event.
As Charity of the Year for this year’s London Marathon on Sunday 23 April, Heads Together wants to make it the ‘mental health marathon’ to get the country talking about mental health.
The campaign, in partnership with eight mental health charities, aims to end stigma, raise awareness and provide vital help for people with mental health problems.
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Post boxes
Around 70 post boxes on the London Marathon route will wear Heads Together headbands.
The Duchess of Cambridge this week met Team Heads Together runners at Kensington Palace taking part in a final training session and joined them in placing a Heads Together headband on a Royal Mail post box.
Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene said:
“As a large employer, we recognise that we have a big role to play in tackling the stigma surrounding mental health… Like Sunday’s race, this is a marathon. We need to build on the good work we have done so far, and that means helping to address this issue within the local communities that we serve every single day. I’m proud that we are using our iconic postboxes to support Heads Together and this important campaign.”
London buildings
Thames Water Tower 
The Old Vic, London 
Battersea Power Station London Duck Tours
London buildings and landmarks that are supporting the campaign by donning headbands include:
- Battersea Power Station
- the Thames Water Tower on the Shepherd’s Bush roundabout
- wax figures at Madame Tussauds London, including The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Jonny Wilkson and Will.i.am.
- the 2012 Olympic Stadium
- Virgin Money Haymarket Lounge and Planet Hollywood in Piccadilly
- one of London Duck Tours’s vessels
Last night the South Bank was illuminated in the Heads Together blue, with the National Theatre and the Coca-Cola London Eye matching the colour of the headbands.
Social media headbands
You don’t have to be a London Marathon runner to support the campaign.
- Twitter has created a custom emoji of a smiley face wearing a Heads Together headband, which appears automatically when you use the hashtags #HeadsTogether # TeamHeadsTogether and #oktosay on the social media platform.
- Snapchat has unveiled a new filter which superimposes a virtual headband in the run up to race day.
- Facebook is enabling users to show their support for Heads Together by adding a Headband filter to their profile pictures.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.