6 hours Ago By Ben Loughran
"We choose to suffer for those who never asked to suffer". or signup to continue reading That was the motto that pushed three through hours of pain as they walked from the nation's capital to Bendigo to raise money for mental health. Nathan Ryan, Tim McKern and Wallis Collins have recently completed a 600km walk from and raised around $60,000 in the process.
After months in the planning the trio set off on October 7, 2024 and after 12 days made it to the finish line at the Hibernian Hotel in Golden Square. Despite physical injuries, feelings of self doubt and a spell of bad weather on the last day, the group says it was more than worth it. All three agreed the most outstanding thing was the outpouring of support and love from family, friends and even complete strangers, all of whom had a story to tell about how they had been affected by mental health.
"It was optional for us what we were doing," Mr Ryan said. "If it got too hard we could have just jumped in the (support vehicle) and said 'we have done 500km and that is enough'. "But we said we choose to suffer for those who never asked to suffer.
I think a lot of the people we ran into didn't ask for the things that happened to them and they were just dealt that hand." While on the road the group found small businesses and people they met were willing to give them food and accommodation to help them on their journey. Mr McKern echoed this sentiment and said he was still receiving messages from complete strangers just thanking him and his friends for completing the walk.
Mr McKern said the outpouring of support from the community made the last stretch from Elmore to Bendigo feel like a dream. "It was nice to be able to help people with their battles because no one is alone and we wanted to make that our main goal to have a chat to your mates and say it is okay not to be okay," he said. "When we got back everyone was talking about it and just the amount of messages from people I don't even know saying how much this walk meant to them.
"If one person sent us that message and we saved one life, we'd do it all again tomorrow." The men raised money for the Loddon Mallee branch of LifeLine and for Let's Chat Park. The group said they will keep their gofundme open for around another week to allow donations to continue.
WA boy in Bendigo, happy to be in Central Victoria. WA boy in Bendigo, happy to be in Central Victoria. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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