Senior project manager Richard Sutherland and assistant site manager Jonathan Watson, who are both working at the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Inchinnan, have raised an impressive £1,230 for The Scottish Association for Mental Health (SamH).

SamH provides assistance in over 60 Scottish communities working with adults and young people, providing mental health social care support, with services in primary care, schools and further education, among others.

Jonathan and Richard were aware of some of the frightening statistics related to mental health problems within the construction industry. For example: two people in the UK working in the construction industry die of suicide every day, 48% of people in the construction industry have taken time off due to unmanageable stress and almost half of the people within the industry find it hard to speak about their mental health.

On May 1, Jonathan and Richard took the leap to raise awareness and jumped from a plane 10,000 feet in the air. They are hoping to use this to prompt the conversation around mental health.

Speaking about it, Richard and Jonathan both said: “There is a perceived stigma that comes with discussing mental health within the industry. We got speaking about it on site and after a bit of research, realised how big the issue of mental health was in construction.

“We decided to do something that would get people talking; the skydive was postponed twice due to bad weather which gave us more time to speak to people about it and unfortunately, allowed more time for our nerves to build up.

“The skydive itself was daunting but we’re both so glad to have done it and are really grateful to everyone who donated. If we can raise a bit of awareness, help a charity like SamH and start some conversations, then we are happy.”

Rachael Martin, corporate partnerships fundraiser at SamH, said: “We were absolutely delighted to see Richard and Jonathan from Tilbury Douglas sign up for a charity skydive in aid of SamH. What an amazing challenge and we’re so grateful that we were the chosen charity.

“SamH is committed to ensuring that anyone with a mental health problem has a place to go for help, and it’s through the efforts of our supporters like this that we can achieve this. Thank you so much from all of us at SamH for helping us improve Scotland’s mental health.”