Philippa Corbin was a talented, successful young woman who put her heart and mind into working creatively with food at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage project. As one might expect, she was passionate about the ethical dimensions of food production and was enthused by the Slow Food Movement, regularly visiting Turin, the movement's beating heart.
Unfortunately, Philippa suffered from depression, and although she fought against her difficulties for many years she ended up tragically taking her own life in January 2011, aged only 27.
Philippa's family had felt powerless to help Philippa during her illness and wanted to do something to ensure that other people would not have to share their experience.
When, shortly after Philippa's death, the Corbins heard about the Human Givens ideas from a doctor they had become friends with, they recognised something that could have helped Philippa and possibly saved her life. So the family devised the Slow Ride to Turin to help promote the Human Givens approach as an effective treatment for depression and to support the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, which aims to raise awareness of depression and its symptoms so that people can recognise the condition in themselves and in others.
After an enormous amount of planning and preparation 30 cyclists, including Philippa's sister Maddie, and their support crew took off from the River Cottage Deli and Canteen in Axminster, Devon in October of last year and cycled the 800 miles to Turin to arrive for the Slow Food Festival. It took them two weeks and in that time they raised a fantastic £65 000, half of which has been given to the HGF.
We feel immensely privileged to have been chosen to receive this money. It will be used to help raise awareness of human givens principles and to help make effective treatments based on these accessible to more and more people. Insofar as deciding the means by which we go about such a mission, we will be meeting with the family soon to discuss ideas and possibilities.
We are hugely grateful to the Corbin family for this donation and offer them our heartfelt thanks for their gift.
The Human Givens Foundation exists to promote the understanding of and access to established knowledge about the 'givens' of human nature and to help people and communities thrive by raising support for projects that further the practical application of these organising ideas within mental health, the family, education and the workplace.
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