We caught up with Love Island winner, Paige Turley to find out about life after Love Island, and her charity run in remembrance of a friend.

Paige Turley first graced our screens back when she was 14 as a rather talented teenage singer on Britain’s Got Talent. She made it all the way to the Semi-finals. She then disappeared from the limelight until she appeared on Love Island back in 2020.

So let’s focus on the reason we’re chatting today. You’re running London Landmark Half Marathon, raising awareness for a really important cause of mental health. What can you tell us about that?

So the reason that I decided to run the half marathon was I lost a friend in late November. It was such a rupture within the community and we really want to keep his memory alive and raise awareness. And because there were so many people who were obviously struggling after the loss of Jamie, I was like, “What can I do to help?”

There’s a few things that are going to be happening in the community. There’s people putting on charity football matches in memory of him. I mean, I’m not much of a football player so this seemed like something I could do to contribute.

So I was like, “What I can I do to help” God forbid, this happens to anyone else. You know, in a similar position to Jamie. So that was the reasons as to why. I thought, right, my dad, he’s ran a marathon. It’s actually 20 years to the day, I’m sure, that he ran a full marathon.

I mean, I couldn’t run a 3K before I started this, so the full marathon, I was like, “That’s completely out the window, absolutely no chance.” But the London Landmarks Half Marathon, I thought, right, you know what, let’s keep our head down and let’s work up to it. So that’s the reason as to why I’ve decided to run.

I actually struggled with it.

I wasn’t actually on the digital side of things. I wasn’t an influencer when I went in there, so it was like, you suddenly come out and you’ve got what feels like the eyes of the world on you.

So then you’ve got a big weight of responsibility to make sure that the kind of stuff you’re putting out there is good and it’s not going to be damaging. A lot of the influencers can be quite vain and fickle. So I don’t want to just be that person who’s putting up pictures and going, “Oh, do you know where do you get your dress from?” or whatever.

So I wanted to do something positive and give back to people as well as have the nice pictures on Instagram or whatever. But that’s how much a huge responsibility it is, I’m very aware of now.

And do you know what? Since I’ve been advertising my fundraising run and putting all this out, there’s been so many people that have messaged me. Like even mums that have got daughters and sons that are struggling.