By Gabriella Payne
After the year we’ve all experienced, mental health and mental wellbeing are at the forefront of everyone’s minds and two local firefighters are taking matters into their own hands, quite literally, to help make a difference and highlight the importance of looking after yourself, both physically and mentally.
Daniel Farrall and Kurt Pitts, a couple of passionate firefighters from the Toomuc Rural Fire Brigade are taking part in this year’s ‘push for better’ push up challenge, making it three years in a row that they’ve participated in Australia’s largest mental health and fitness initiative.
In the space of 25 days, from Tuesday 1 June until Friday 25 June, Mr Farrall and Mr Pitts are aiming to complete a whopping 3,318 push ups each, which represent the number of people who died by suicide in Australia in 2019.
It may be a mighty task, but both Mr Farrall and Mr Pitts said that they are up for the challenge and are hoping to raise as much money as they can for this worthy cause – one that is incredibly close to Mr Farrall’s heart.
“For me it’s personal, I struggled with mental health issues ten years ago and I found it really hard to talk about,” Mr Farrall explained.
“I had a close mate who helped me day to day, and with a lot of work I’ve come out the other side a different person, for the better.
It’s after this experience I learned the struggle to find someone to talk to and this is why I participate in the pushup challenge every year,” he said.
Mr Pitts echoed Mr Farrall’s statements, and said that he hoped to help remove the stigma around mental health and spread awareness in the community.
“Mental health is not something that is spoken about regularly, and is often swept under the carpet,” Mr Pitts said.
“This campaign helps to bring these important issues to the surface and promotes healthy conversations between family, friends and colleagues.“
As well as it’s charitable benefits – the push up challenge is a great physical activity that pushes participants to dig deep and work hard.
“The pushup challenge is not only tough, but a worthwhile personal challenge,” Mr Pitts said.
“It raises awareness for important mental health issues, and in addition to that, it’s a lot of fun.“
To help support Mr Farrall, Mr Pitts and the Toomuc CFA in their push up challenge efforts, head to https://www.thepushupchallenge.com.au/donate-to-11896-toomuc-cfa
