At a time when we are being told to stay away from other people and keep indoors more because of the coronavirus, how can we keep our spirits up?

The fear is that, for those who live and work alone in particular, we might begin to feel down or even become depressed.

But one man says there is a simple but very effective way of combating this - exercise.

Mark Redwood-Thomson says that for those who are fit enough to do so, he advocates getting out and about in the fresh air and going for a walk or run.

With Gloucestershire being a mostly rural county, the countryside is not too far away from most residents - even those in the larger towns and villages. And we have plenty of parks too.

Mark, who lives with his husband John in the hamlet of Deerhurst Walton, near Tewkesbury, says running helped him deal with being raped and losing his parents to suicide.

The sexual attack happened when he was eight years old and his alcoholic parents, Gerald and Jennifer, killed themselves at the same time in 2002.

The Edinburgh-born 43-year-old said he didn’t really know why they took their own lives - although letters they left their children suggested it was because they both had serious health problems.

Not surprisingly, Mark said his mental health had “taken a battering” over the years.

But he said the relatively recent discovery of the benefits of walking and running had helped his state of mind enormously.

He had found working out in the gym was not for him but then tried going for a run and loved it.

That was three-and-a-half years ago, since when he has completed the Cheltenham Half Marathon three times.

He said: “There’s nothing better than fresh air. It doesn’t matter if it’s teeming with rain, snow or sunshine. We’re lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

“Go outside and blow the cobwebs away and the thing is, it’s free.”

He said that when he ran, he felt free of his worries and dark thoughts that he might otherwise have.

“For me, if I’m feeling tense and stressed, I put my running shoes on and instantly I feel better.”

He added that he realised there would be people who did not like running but he could honestly say he had never been for a run and not felt better afterwards.

He said: “If you’re out there, going past fields, houses, looking at things like potholes or whatever it is, it just clears your head. “Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees so take a step back. From a mental point of view, I’ve never had a run that hasn’t been fantastic.”

Mark has four dogs of his own and walks other people’s dogs as part of his pet care business.

He said walking could also help lift people’s mood, as well as provide vitally important exercise.

Another benefit of living in Gloucestershire, he said, was that it was safe to be out and about - unlike in parts of South Africa where he lived for many years after his family moved there from the UK.

And Mark said that talking about things to someone else could help your mental health enormously.

“It really helps. We’ve all been through **** in our lives. Everyone has their own problems.

“Discussing things or just having an ear to listen to you, it’s a big thing.”

He said he did not tell anyone he was raped until eight years after it happened.

Mark and John have been together for 12 years and lived in Cheltenham for nine years before moving to Deerhurst Walton.

Mark hopes to raise £10,000 for the Suicide Crisis and Mind charities by completing a marathon a month, for 12 months, in the UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Malta.

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Anyone wanting to sponsor him can do so by clicking here.

He had planned to start his sequence with a marathon in Paris on April 5 but a knee injury he is recovering from, and the coronavirus outbreak, meant he had to postpone it. He now hopes to begin the marathons in August.