Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin

Local winemaker Mike Garland was one of 50 cyclists who stopped in at Denmark Senior High School as part of WA’s annual Ride For Youth fundraiser.

The cyclists joined 150 students from years eight and nine to talk about youth mental health.

One of the group’s most senior cyclists, 71-year-old ‘Simon’, spoke to the students about his experience with youth mental health and shared a heartfelt story of his daughter who began suffering from bulimia at age 15.

His daughter had also expressed a desire to self harm.

Simon told students the importance of asking for help and to also look out for unusual changes in their schoolmates’ behaviour and tell someone they trust about it.

“My daughter is now an adult and working overseas in a career she loves but if she hadn’t spoken up about how she was feeling I don’t know what would have happened,” Simon said.

“She gave me permission to tell her story as she hopes it will help other kids.”

The group of cyclists who came through Denmark was one of three groups riding from Albany to Perth along three different routes.

Mike covered more than 700km in four and a half days as he chose the longer route that went via Denmark, Walpole, Pemberton and Busselton.

“The ride pushed a lot of people to their limit, including me,” Mike said.

“I didn’t expect it to be so emotional when we reached the finish point as there were nearly 1000 people waiting for us to arrive at UWA in Perth.”

The Ride For Youth event is designed to raise awareness of youth mental health while raising funds to provide in-school youth support workers and financial support for other youth counselling organisations such as Headspace.

This year’s ride raised more than $2 million and Mike exceeded his personal fundraising goal of $5000 by raising more than $7000.

Donations can still be made via the Ride for Youth website and by adding ‘Michael Garland’ in the search option.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 4 April 2024.