Kindness of strangers in Ross-shire boosts epic cycle challenge highlighting male suicide
AN adventurer making a solo 5000-mile trip to highlight a campaign tackling male suicide was touched by the kindness of strangers in Ross-shire during a challenge to live on a £1 a day.
Lewis Stephens (23), known on social media as The Tourist Dog, has several stops in Ross-shire during his epic trek around the UK on a 65-year-old Claud Butler bike.
Mr Stephens is raising money for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a movement against male suicide.
After leaving John o' Groats — approximately three hundred miles into his journey — he set himself the challenge of living with £20 for 20 days, relying on the help of locals to show the importance of seeking help while being exposed and vulnerable.
He said: "People have been incredibly helpful here: especially in the last few days on a particularly demanding route, where my bike broke for the first time, I had people coming to pick me up and help me get to local bike shops.
"A couple helped me when my bike let me down and also gave me a proper army ration pack to carry with me."
His route also took in Ullapool, Achmelvich, Golspie, Tain and Inverness, where he was hosted by locals in their houses or caravans and enjoyed the local fish and chips, packed lunches and hot meals he was offered along the way.
"Sometimes I even had to turn down help, there were so many people trying to give me food that I wasn't able to take along with me," he confessed.
He said: "What really helps me out on such a long journey is the conversation with people, this is what really keeps me inspired and I feel it's very important to communicate to avoid being closed up in your own bubble."
The idea of the tour came after reading One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter while travelling around Europe as a volunteer.
He first discovered CALM at an event where they were hosting a fundraising cycle and he felt that it was the natural charity to devote his journey to.
“I've had close friends whose family members have taken their lives due to problems that arise through no fault of their own. I've experienced the same emotions whilst coping with low level addiction and I feel that by looking for alternate ways of dealing with problems there are ways to overcome this issue. CALM for me personally is the perfect charity to make the first steps to that change.”
He will be delivering talks on mental health awareness on his route as well as talking to pupils in schools about alternative and equally enriching career paths.
"Sometimes schools have only one answer to offer to young people, and it's a lot of pressure when you feel this is not the right path for you. Even if marks and exams are not going well this doesn't mean there is no solution: there are many fascinating ways of learning and alternative ways of acquiring new skills that employers would look at as highly valuable."
You can follow him as The Tourist Dog on social media and donate on his Just Giving page.
