Almost a year on from their punishing seven-day run from Perth to Albany, two brothers are ready to take on the gruelling journey again to raise more money and awareness of mental health — this time on wheels.
Next month, Jacob and Flynn Sauer will set off from Mandurah on pushbikes, travelling south through Busselton, Pemberton and Walpole before a final push to the top of Mt Clarence in Albany.
The team, which operates under the campaign banner The Hard Road, are hoping to almost double the $14,000 they raised last year for Black Dog Institute, and will this year have a slightly more co-ordinated approach.
“It was not very well organised, so we’re trying to do a bit better this time,” Albany resident Jacob said.
“We decided that we’ll try and use bikes, so more people can be part of it, and we’ll ride over for a couple of days instead of being prideful and trying to just do it in a certain amount of days.
“It’s remembering why we’re doing it in the first place — the whole point of the last one was that its OK to reach out and sometimes you need help to get to the end.
“Because we wouldn’t have made it without those people that helped us.”
It was on the penultimate night of the 400km trek last year that Flynn, who resides in Perth, had to be hospitalised after developing a stomach ulcer from consuming “too many painkillers and not enough food and water”.
“A lot of the inspiration and motivation to carry on was by all the people whose lives that we touched in that seven days that we did it,” Flynn said.
“We definitely aren’t athletes and not normally cyclists, so hopefully people will be nice to us as we’re learning the road rules.”
Assuring that all injures are now recovered and training for the ride has begun in earnest, the brothers said much of the push to initiate a subsequent event was from the same people they met along the way last year.
“There’s a few people in particular that kept messaging the page that we made, and it really just helped us,” Jacob said.
We got invited to do some speeches in Mt Barker and stuff, so that helped us develop a little bit more than what we intended to, but as long as we’re helping people, we might as well keep doing what we can
The pair are calling this year’s event The Chain Reaction — a cycling metaphor of a pedal pulling on a bike chain creating momentum representing how one small conversation about mental health can spark momentum that could eventually save a life.
The Sauer siblings hope to have company on their ride, and encourage anyone who wants to join them for a checkpoint leg, a full riding day or the whole event to get in touch.
They will start the ride on August 7 and are set to arrive in Albany on August 10.
Donations can be made via their page THR: The Chain Reaction on the Black Dog Institute website.
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