Mike King and Richie Barnett in Whangamatā last week to drum up support for the Due Drop Hope Challenge 2023.
A former rugby league star and a well-known comedian-turned-mental health advocate stopped in Whangamatā last week to rev up support for the Due Drop Hope Challenge, a 16-day relay event from Cape Reinga to the Beehive in Wellington.
A group of Kiwis including Richie Barnett, former All Black Ian Jones and ex-world triathlon champion Rick Wells will run, bike, swim and kayak the length of the North Island to highlight the struggles young people face in accessing counselling.
The relay will conclude with a hīkoi to Parliament led by Mike King, who will meet with a Government representative to convey the group’s concerns about the need for action on improving young people’s mental health.
“The wait times for our kids to see a mental health professional are getting longer, and it seems we are becoming more reliant on medication to fill the void,” King said.
“This challenge is the ideal opportunity to promote our free counselling service, Gumboot Friday, and inform Kiwis that there is an alternative.”
The participants include Auckland businessman David Mitchell, Auckland real estate guru Richard Hart, poliovirus survivor Karim Rostami - for whom walking again was considered a miracle - and Auckland IT professional Geoff Everson. King would complete part of the journey, as well as former Kiwis captain Richie Barnett.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times, King, aged 60, joked the relay was “the dumbest thing I’ve ever done”, but said the challenge was an important one.
“After eight years of speaking in schools, young people’s view on counselling is only mentally ill people see the counsellor, so the stigma is stopping a lot of young people from coming forward early for fear of what other people think, say or do.
“Our job is to turn counselling from being seen as a mental health intervention to - it’s just a conversation. It’s [about] shifting the way people think about stuff.
“We could come up with reasons why people think this, but there’s no point throwing negatives at a problem when you can throw positives at a solution.”
Gumboot Friday founder King said the challenge would raise awareness of the initiative, which gives young Kiwis free and fast access to qualified counselling. It was also a chance to connect with more communities.
Gumboot Friday held more than 2000 counselling sessions in the Bay of Plenty in the 12 months to September - most of those with teenagers, but some with younger children or people in their early 20s.
The charity was aimed at letting young people know it was better to talk about their problems “before they become big problems, before they become suicidal thoughts”, King said.
On the way down, relay athletes and supporters would visit 16 towns where they would engage with local iwi, communities, schools and businesses to encourage participation, whether it be running a kilometre with the team or meeting them at the finish line.
Day six, January 19, ends in Whangamatā, with the next day taking the participants to Mount Maunganui, and from there to Whakatāne.
Wells - who led the team in the Great Barrier to Auckland Challenge, in which he, Rostami, Jones, Hart and Mitchell swam 100 kilometres in a relay from Tryphena to Takapuna Beach, raising $350,000 for St John - said in a statement the topic of suicide was one of national significance.
“New Zealand has one of the highest teenage suicide rates in the world. Every day, our children suffer from depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other mental health challenges, and we need more people to be talking about it, with urgency.
“Most of the participants in our group are not professional or seasoned athletes, but we’re putting ourselves through acute pain in the hope of the country taking notice of the pain our children are in.”
Jones said in the statement the group of like-minded and “somewhat crazy old mates” were putting themselves through their paces to bring to the forefront the challenges some young people face.
“Encouraged by our previous efforts in the Great Barrier Challenge, we hope to raise money and awareness around mental health for Mike King’s I Am Hope and Gumboot Friday charities.
“The distance between Cape Reinga and Parliament is 1,063 kilometres, and our goal is to raise enough money to cover 1,063 counselling sessions.”
A total of $135,000 had already been raised - the equivalent of 1071 hours of sessions.
The event is sponsored by the Due Drop Foundation.
How to donate or find a counsellor
To donate online or find a free counsellor, visit gumbootfriday.org.nz.
To give $3, text ‘BOOTS’ to 469.