Tim McKern, Wallis Collins and Nathan Ryan recently completed a massive physical and mental feat, walking the 622km from Canberra to Bendigo, passing through Yarrawonga on October 15 to raise awareness and funds for mental health and to end the stigma that unfortunately lies alongside mental health.
“Back in 2016 we lost a mate to suicide. He was always the happy one. You know, it's always the way. The ones that are the most cheerful, the ones that are making everyone else happy are the ones that are actually fighting the biggest battle,” Tim said.
“So that was pretty rough on us and it was sort of a reality check of, you never know what anyone's going through so we wanted to normalise having a chat to your mates and breaking the stigma when it comes to mental health.
“That was the real trigger point which made us start this walk.
“We decided to go from Canberra to Bendigo as I have had friends that have suffered with mental health and we've obviously lost mates to suicide, so it is something we're very passionate about and we want to normalise.”
Whilst one of the mates’ main goals was to raise money for services that assist people who are suffering with mental health, their main aim was to raise awareness that your mates are always there to have a talk when you are in need and it’s ok not to be ok.
“That was a big part of our walk and to be honest we love a physical challenge, as well as a mental challenge,” Tim said.
“We knew it was going to be hard not just physically, but mentally to push through the mental barriers and there were so many times we just wanted to quit, but we just thought, well we can quit if we want. We have a choice to quit and we can just stop. But people with mental health issues don't just flick a switch and stop.
“So that was a really big thing that just kept us driving to keep putting one foot in front of the other and basically why we decided to do the walk, because we knew that we would suffer for those that didn't get a choice to suffer.
Whilst the three mates spent less than 24 hours in Yarrawonga, they said the reception they received locally, as well as along the whole journey, was enormous and one of the big reasons the men would do it all again.
“The amount of generosity from people we know, strangers, just everyone, has just been huge and it's just made the whole thing,” Tim said.
“It's probably the most enjoyable thing in the walk, to be honest.
“Just strangers donating accommodation, money, food, always messages we got from people saying how much this walk meant to them.
“It's been absolutely crazy and the reception we got when we walked into Bendigo was crazy. I had goosebumps the whole way.
“We would do it all again, it was just amazing.
“We've raised over $50,000, probably closer to $60,000, which is pretty awesome.
“The money will go to Lifeline, more so our local lifeline who services from Bendigo all out to Mildura.”
While the men have raised a lot of money and awareness for this important cause, they have vowed that this is far from the end and they will continue to advocate for mental health until the stigma is broken.
“Of course we’ll continue to be involved in mental health advocacy,” Tim said.
“This is the second walk we've done now, so it's something we're deeply passionate about and I think this walk has really helped break down some barriers and let people know it is okay not to be okay and have a chat to their mates.
“We've done a lot in that regard, but you know, we must keep going. There's still a long, long way to go and we've got a hell of a lot of momentum at the moment, so we're going to use that momentum to keep going.
“Keep pushing and help as many people as we can because we know that as great as what we did great as what it was and what we did, it's, there's still a long, long way to go.
“We're going to continue to stay on the front foot and who knows, we might even organize something once again in the future. So, watch this space.
“It has been very overwhelming, but we wouldn’t change it for the world.”
