Since the creation of Mental Health Motorbike at the beginning of 2020 a lot has happened, not least a global pandemic. We were forced to concentrate our efforts online and saw a massive growth in our support community as the lockdowns had a heavy toll on the public’s mental health.
With some optimism we pushed on with our desire to get out into the real world to raise awareness of suicide rates of bikers and a primary goal of having a trained Mental Health First Aider from the motorcycle community in every town and city across the UK. Our aim was to ride the extent of the UK, over 3000 miles, accompanied along the way with nominated baton carriers. The GPS tracked baton would be handed from rider to rider as we visited as many venues as possible along the way.
With all the planning completed we finally awaited the final roadmap out of the current lockdown. Having reviewed this and after many hours of discussion we feel that it would not be possible to complete the ride in the original timeframe while adhering to the guidelines. Furthermore, we would not be able to realise the original vision of community involvement.
It is on this basis that Mental Health Motorbike has made the hard decision to postpone the ride until 2022.
We will continue to reach out the community throughout 2021 not least with our ambassador presence at every stage of the Bennett’s British Superbike season and with attendance at as many motorcycle events such as the Overland Festival.
Our primary goal remains to train as many MHFA volunteers as possible and this in turn will help us build capacity to provide the much-required support to the motorcycle community and beyond.
We acknowledge and thank you for your continued support that has allowed us in the last year alone to achieve:
- More than 6.5k online supported on social media, support and fundraising groups
- Over 97 regional ambassadors
- Over 56 MHFAs trained
- More than 780 cases of individual One to One support
And, most importantly…
The support of 57 members who were at the point of suicide but are still with us today.