By David Thill
Sixteen-year-old Cameron Gallagher wanted to shed light on teen depression and anxiety. Now her family is carrying on the work she didn’t get to finish.
On March 16, 2014, 16-year-old Cameron Gallagher achieved a goal she had set for herself: completing a half-marathon. But just after passing the finish line at the Anthem Half Marathon, part of the Shamrock Marathon Weekend in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Gallagher collapsed. She died that day of sudden cardiac arrhythmia.
But her family set to work to finish another mission that Gallagher began before her death: bringing attention to teen depression and anxiety. Six months later, in September 2014, they held the inaugural SpeakUp5K (Gallagher’s title for the event she wanted to sponsor, to let teens know that it’s OK to “SpeakUp” about their struggles), drawing 3,500 participants to the race in Richmond, Virginia. Since that race, the CKG Foundation, named after Cameron, has expanded nationally to continue the work she started.
The CKG Foundation
Cameron’s uncle and godfather, Trip Handy, is the national sales director at Blue Chip Medical Products. He volunteers with the CKG Foundation, where his sister, Grace Gallagher – Cameron’s mother – serves as executive director.
Handy says that Cameron’s decision to run the half-marathon came from a deal she made with her parents: In exchange for a car in honor of her 16th birthday, they said, she needed to set a challenge for herself and achieve it. The challenge she chose was the Anthem Half Marathon.
Cameron’s death made national headlines, Handy says, because of the “story behind the story.” Cameron had struggled with depression as a teenager, an experience that led to hospitalization in its worst moments. But, says Handy, she decided that she was “sick and tired of the stigma associated with mental illness.”
He says that on the day she ran the half-marathon, Cameron was the happiest she had been in a long time.
Her death prompted parents Grace and David to start the CKG Foundation and the SpeakUp5K. A May 2014 fundraiser for the foundation, prior to the September race, drew 10,000 people, says Handy.
Now, races are held annually in Richmond, San Diego, Tampa, and Boone, North Carolina. Part of the reason it expanded was because of demand, says Handy. For example, the event made its way to Boone after a teenager from the town whose friend had battled severe depression contacted the CKG Foundation and requested they bring the 5K there.
Aside from the race, the foundation partners with schools to implement curriculum to help teens cope with depression and anxiety, and sponsors hospital and community projects as well. At press time, the foundation has delivered services to approximately 14,000 teens and their families, with a goal of serving 24,000 by the end of the year, says Grace Gallagher, the CKG Foundation’s executive director. She adds that the foundation has given over $100,000 to the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, to which it has committed giving $250,000 total.
And even though the foundation has no connection to Blue Chip Medical, Handy has heard from colleagues who told him they pointed their own teenage relatives dealing with depression to the foundation’s website. Many of those young people experienced positive changes through participation in the foundation’s programming, he says. “We have seen firsthand how it has helped a lot of people.” And so, the work will keep growing.
‘Let’s finish this.’
Cameron ran the half-marathon with her best friend. The story goes that at mile 12, she paused because of a leg cramp. But she looked at her friend and said, “Let’s finish this.” Now, that line – “Let’s Finish This!” – is part of the CKG Foundation’s message to bring attention to and start discussion about teen depression and anxiety. (According to a study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry in May, more than 13 percent of American boys and more than one-third of American girls have experienced or are experiencing depression by the time they reach age 17.)
The foundation is ever-growing, Handy says, and has been fortunate to receive corporate sponsorship, which provides helpful fundraising support. But that fundraising won’t stop. “Everybody knows somebody that suffers from depression,” says Handy. So he and the CKG Foundation will keep telling Cameron Gallagher’s story, to continue her mission and “SpeakUp” about teen depression and anxiety.
For more information about the CKG Foundation and the SpeakUp5K, readers can visit http://www.ckgfoundation.org.