MURRAY Thompson had never attempted a multi-day bike ride – until Friday.
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Aiming to raise funds for beyondblue, the Canberra man set off from Wagga in the morning on a five-day cycling trek to Nowra, visiting Canberra, Goulburn and Picton on the way.
“I’ve been cycling for a long time – I cycled in my late teens and then on and off in the past 25 years,” he said.
“I’ve only got back into it more seriously in the last couple of years.”
With his daughter having been born in Wagga and his son in Nowra, the choice of route was an easy one for Mr Thompson.
His choice of cause has family ties too – both Mr Thompson and his father have had struggles with mental health issues over the years, he said.
“I just wanted to raise some awareness about the services and the ability these days … to deal with mental health, compared to 50 years ago when my father was dealing with anxiety and depression,” he said.
“I think the attention mental health is getting is more than what it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
The idea for the bike ride to raise money for charity came about on Mr Thompson’s birthday last year, and he hopes to stage a separate event down the track to raise money for the Cancer Council.
A breakfast was held at the Wagga Base Hospital mental health unit on Friday morning to bid Mr Thompson farewell on his journey with plenty of well-wishers on hand to lend their support to the cause.
Mr Thompson has been preparing for the 520-kilometre ride since early September and has spent the past month training hard for the event.
He acknowledges it’s going to be an arduous slog, but will be focused on taking the ride one step at a time.
“I’ve done single-day stuff but not back-to-back (days) – that’s the big challenge,” he said.
“I think it’s all about looking at the kilometre you’ve got in front of you and ticking it off.”
The route he has chosen has plenty of hills along the way, but thankfully for Mr Thompson it will be mostly downhill to finish his journey.
A fundraising dinner for the trek will be held in Canberra on Saturday night before Mr Thompson arrives in Nowra on Tuesday to finish his journey.
Those looking to donate to Mr Thompson’s fundraising ride can do so by visiting facebook.com/bushtoblue15.
