Nova 919 breakfast presenter Andrew ‘Hayesy’ Hayes will run 50km on Friday November 28 to raise funds for the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation and to encourage the people of Adelaide to pause and check in for a chat with each other.
After he and co-host Jodie Oddy do their show live from Glenelg that morning, Hayesy will complete the run, in an effort to help reduce the awful statistic that nine Australians, seven of them men, lose their lives to suicide every day.
The reasons for Hayesy are personal. In his mid 20s one of his closest school friends took his life.
He told Adelaide Now (subscription required) that after the funeral he and his mates made an informal pact they would do whatever they could to prevent others feeling like doing the same:
“I’m at my best and I’m most open when I go for a run.
With blokes, when it’s hard to open up and communicate, mixing it with running is a good platform to say ‘let’s have a chat and let’s talk and talk properly’.
“The big goal now is to shift that from the ‘talking about that sort of stuff is soft’ to ‘no, you need to talk about that sort stuff because it can genuinely save someone’s life’.”
You can donate here.
If you need to talk to someone, the following services are available 24 hours a day:
beyondblue: 1300 224 636
1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732
MensLine Australia: 1300 789 978
Lifeline: 13 11 14