LOCAL LIFE

If anyone ’ s boots were made for walking , it would be Chris Barton ’ s . Over the weekend of 6 and 7 April , Chris took on the epic task of walking round the Athletic Stadium at the Blacktown International Sports Park to raise money for youth mental health at his event , Step into Action .

Over the course of 30 hours , Chris walked nonstop and covered a distance of 152.5km . He didn ’ t do this on his own and was accompanied by five others for the full walk , Marcus and Adrian who are twins , Craig , Neil and Billy . There were many other people from the community who either knew Chris or had heard of the

Chris Marcus ( middle ), Adrian , Craig , Neil and Billy walked 152.5 km to raise money for charity . event who joined in through the day and night . They were all supported by local businesses who turned up with food and drinks , sports clubs and of course , a vital helping hand from Vital Health Hub to keep him mobile during the event .

This walk isn ’ t Chris ’ first extreme walk , he has done several others to raise funds and awareness for mental health , but has usually done them on his own .

“ Last year I walked from Katoomba to Manly nonstop , which was 130 km . I had the odd person walk with me for a while to support me , but this is the first time I ’ ve had people walk the full distance with me and it was amazing to have that support ,” Chris told me .

“ We had about 200 people come to the stadium and walk from one lap to four hours , to make it more a community walk . My plan in the future is to make this a bigger community event that people can join in with .”

Chris had hoped to raise $ 10,000 for local charity , BREED , but his efforts , along with the other walkers who raised money meant

they were able to double their donation to nearly $ 20,000 . He chose this charity because he knows that 100 per cent of the money would go to helping the people of Blacktown .

BREED is a Blacktown based organisation that runs workshops at local high schools to help teenagers learn how to build resilience and emotional intelligence , to help them better cope with challenges they might face . As well as providing the workshops in high school , BREED also supports young people in other ways .

They have run digital enterprise projects for young people with autism , helped people with mental health problems explore career options , worked with Featherdale Wildlife Park to get young people work experience and helped place over 45,000 students into work placements . Chris chose this particular charity to be the recipient for the money raised due to the support it provides .

“ I decided to give the funds to BREED because we have a real mental health crisis in western Sydney , and I wanted the money to stay here . Suicide is the leading cause of death in the 16 – 24 year old age group , and here in the west of Sydney that statistic is higher . By raising money and awareness I hope to help improve the state of mental health in young people , it ’ s too important an issue to ignore .”

Walking is something that Chris does for his own mental health , and having done daily walks myself for the past 15 years I have to agree with this . Just 30 minutes of walking can improve your

mood , it gets you out in fresh air , improves your blood flow , can help reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease and is the one exercise which can be done by the majority of people for free . Along with these physical and mental benefits , Chris has found a few unexpected ones along the way .

“ Walking together can build connections and community , we saw during lockdown that people were out walking more and talking to their neighbours . During the 30 hour walk I had four or five conversations with people who opened up and told me about their struggles with depression or other mental health challenges . This impacted me emotionally and has inspired me to take this event to the next level .”

When Chris told me this , we discussed why walking was the perfect opportunity to talk - you can be physically close to the person , but you are facing in the same direction so don ’ t have the pressure of eye contact , which can make it easier to get problems off your chest . Chris backed up this idea with how walking has impacted his relationship with his son .

“ My 17-year-old son and I walk an hour a day together . We talk on those walks , he would never share the things we talk about just sitting around the house , but we have a great relationship because we walk together .”

For those of us out there who have a busy brain and struggle to switch off or who suffer from mental health challenges , we are often told to meditate to help slow our brains or nervous system down , but

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6 ISSUE 38 // MAY 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT