Many thanks for visiting my JustGiving page, but what’s my story? I was fortunate to be heavily involved in the Strategy, but I have a far more personal reason for championing it. Yes, many will know of my passion for cycling, but not as many will now of my family's struggle with mental health. I have a fantastic wife and 2 equally fantastic children. However, over the past few years, it has become clear that my Son suffers with mental health issues. I will not go into the detail but it is safe to say that as a loving parent I have never been more scared or felt more completely and utterly useless as the day when the depth of his issues really hit home. I am from a generation and work environment where any sign of weakness is buried and talking about your experiences and telling people you need help is something that others do; or so was my belief. When I now look back, Conor displayed early symptoms that were obvious and if I had reached out for advice earlier then I may have been there sooner for Conor. He was in a situation of tremendous isolation and struggled to communicate with family or friends or to ask for the support he needed. But this seems at odds to my earlier comment about challenges caused by generational differences, and I now recognise that a single aspect impacts all ages. The biggest thing that affected us both was the stigma attached to mental health. Conor went through what I can only call a life changing event almost 2 years ago now. The outcome for him is yet to be defined. The outcome for me was immediate; I drove the hour commute to work and broke down. I was horrified with myself, apologised to everyone for causing a scene and tried to leave. But colleagues including my boss stopped me, sat me down and didn’t let me leave till everything was out in the open. I can't explain the sense of relief from simply talking about it. I left the room knowing that I would now be in a better place to help Conor and to be quite frank, there remains nothing more important. Taking on this ride and telling my story is my attempt to chip away at the stigma that surrounds mental health, but there are those far better than me. Mind is such a charity. They provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem and campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. Many thanks for your time in reading this and becoming more aware, if you feel you can do more then any donation would be awesome.