When you set out to do something new life will always throw you curve balls. You won’t have a moment to breathe, you will question is this the right thing? It will cost you personally lots of money, but if you surround yourself with interesting people who have amazing stories to tell and an adventurous spirit you start to believe anything is possible.
Three days at the Overland event Has given me so much confidence and belief that what we are doing with Mental Health Motorbike is of life changing importance. I’ve met young people who rode 40,000 miles round the world on a scooter and sidecar. I’ve met world-class musicians who said we can use any of their music to assist our work. I’ve met women adventurers who are such + role models for the next generation of young women. I’ve met members of our team who are fighting the battle of their life but refuse to let cancer beat them. In short I’ve met some of the most incredible people in my life in one place in a field in Oxfordshire, my god what a absolute privilege this was.
So what does this mean? Basically has charged my battery so full I know we just have to make this work now. Mental health is so important. There has been numerous times in my life where I have wished I was wasn’t here. I have two families that love me, support me and have brought me up well. But even that wasn’t strong enough to stop me wanting to end everything. Many people don’t have that support and I can’t imagine the loneliness to be on the brink of making that final decision alone. We have to do more to look after people and this isn’t rocket science to achieve. Suicide destroys families and rips communities apart and the relatives and friends are left asking WHY? with no possible answer to this question available for the rest of their lives. If we can encourage people to get the right support and give longer term support and hope this might be reduced.
Being in a field in Oxfordshire with Paddy, Saul, Nick and the Overland team I believe will be a pivotal moment in my life. It has really focussed my thinking that doing a small something is better than doing a massive nothing! They are really good people who have sacrificed a lot to make these events happen but my God what they do is good.
Thank you Overland Team you are amazing and we will try to create another story worthy of going in the Overland story book.
Today we want to share some amazing news… Bennett’s Insurance have come onboard as a sponsor. Thank you for believing in what we do and giving us the support to help bikers with their longer term well being.
Over the last two months we’ve been in lockdown and the situation has been different for everybody across the country. I am very lucky as we live in a rural location with hundreds of footpaths and farmers fields. This has meant been able to go for long walks without seeing a single person.
The mental health motorbike had a plan before lockdown to go out to a number of events across the country supporting bikers where the need arose. This very quickly changed so we went online. People started coming to us through messenger, zoom and chat for support. Over the last few months we supported over 75 people. Of this 26 of these have been one to one engagements. And a number of these people were in a bad way at the point of contacting us.
Supporting people like this has been new to me so I needed to find a way of managing it. On average a one-to-one support call lasts for two hours. So I decided to take my office outdoors and walk and talk in the beautiful countryside. This has had a number of benefits. First I was with the person in the here and now, second I was using the outdoor environment and nature a way of keeping calm and being able to focus on what people were saying to me. Thirdly I’m really importantly for me I was getting fit whilst working.
I appreciate not everybody can redefine what their office is. But I would encourage you to think about how to utilise the outdoors to create a more harmonious work environment.
If you need any support go to www.facebook.com/mhmotorbike And hit the Send Message button or go to the website www.mhmotorbike.com And hit the chat button bottom right of the screen.
After reviewing how people are making contact we have decided to move over to a live chat function on the website. We are aiming to be available from 12pm – 6pm Monday to Fridays and 12pm – 2pm Saturdays.
the live chat is available directly from all pages of the website (www.mhmotorbike.com) and also redirects people from Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/mhmotorbike) if they hit the SEND MESSAGE button. Let people know we are easier to access now.
As we celebrate the first two months of our existence it is amazing how one story quickly becomes another. Our plan was to start out with a fully branded bike which got out to events to meet bikers dace to face. What actually happened was a virus which shut down most of the world and meant everything changed. We suddenly became very relevant to people online asking social media channels and internet tools.
This is the newsletter that shares a bit about what has been happened through the strange world reshaped by the Corona Virus
A long term plan of our team is to commission a piece of academic research which explores this in more detail. Wouldn’t it be good if we could get Doctors to prescribe a 6 week course with the Mental Health Motorbike! Well this is what we are aiming for. Watch this space.
A few days ago I got a phone call from Mike Thatcher who runs and owns seaways café. For those that don’t know seaways café is on the A166, Fimber Road near Driffield. A gateway to the east coast and beautiful Flamborough Head.
They have an incredible bike following and it’s the known destination for anybody travelling in this area. So Mike asked us to do the first podcast that he’s offering out his network. For us this was a really important phone call because it started to validate what we are doing from somebody that is respected within the biker industry. This is a man that knows bikes and he knows the biker psyche. After all when you’re dealing with hundreds of them each day you start to get an insight.
Mike is very easy to get on with, a guy clearly passionate and was keen to hear about what we are doing. So we jumped at the opportunity to do the interview with him. I think it went really well I will try and put a link to it below. It’s all good practice hopefully we won’t use the video elements of it just the audio!!!
We can’t wait until after lockdown so we can get over and have a proper cup of tea together and meet you all over on the east coast but until then you just have to listen to us.
Once again Mike thanks for the opportunity and look forward to meeting your network of bikers. Paul
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