By Joe McCann
LOCAL comedian Dave Elliott is to take to the saddle to highlight the ‘scandalous’ lack of support for mental health services in Northern Ireland.
The aptly named ‘Break the Cycle’ campaign will see Dave cycle just under 300 miles across Northern Ireland over three days, beginning on Wednesday, October 8, and ending on Friday, October 10.
Dave’s began his journey yesterday morning from the Action Mental Health offices in Newtownards and he will be live-streaming his challenge and giving updates along the way to add some craic to the challenge.
Dave, who has suffered from a degree of depression in the past, said mental health is one of the big issues facing society in the province. He will be raising money for Action Mental Health, a local charity for which he is an ambassador.
Asked how he feels about embarking on such a lengthy cycle Dave said: “It’s about 293 miles too much.
“Action Mental Health asked me to be an ambassador for them and I was honoured to do so and then they asked, would you like to do a challenge? I said to them ‘sure thing’ but let me check with my wife and I was hoping she would say no, don’t be stupid but instead she said yes, this is a great idea and then there was no way I could back out.”
Dave will be cycling around all the charity’s hubs and offices in the country, trying to raise awareness and money ‘for a great cause’.
“It will be a challenge because I haven’t cycled since I was about 10 and I’m nearly 40 here, so it’s been quite a while,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to get out cycling as much as I can and I’m just hoping it’s at least dry for some of it.”
Dave hopes people following the journey will be able to use it as a way to speak out about their own mental health. He said: “Even if the weather isn’t good, I’m hoping people will hopefully empathise with the struggle that I’ll be going through. I’ll just have to suck it up and hope for the best.
“The most important thing, no matter what amount we raise, is getting people to talk about mental health and to be open with it. Getting people to talk about it and be aware about the services if they help.”
Dave stated: “I think the scandalous thing about it is how little support for mental health services there are in this country. I think of all the issues that we have here, there are many but I think this is one of the big ones that would help a lot of people.
“There are so many things connected to having bad mental health, if you have bad mental health it can lead to loads of other issues.”
Dave said speaking to someone about his own mental health had greatly helped him in the past.
“I had a wee bit myself a few years ago and I found, personally speaking, just being open about it and knowing what was wrong helped me, because I was a bit down in the dumps,” he added.
“I was suffering from a bit of depression and didn’t know what it was. I just thought it was just me being a wee bit moody but my wife said no, you haven’t moved in three days, you haven’t washed, you haven’t done anything and I went and spoke to a doctor.
“I was like, right, okay, that’s what it is. That helped me massively.”
The Bangor man said that comedy offered another route for talking about mental health and allowed people to have a laugh at the same time: “The good thing about being a comedian and talking about mental health is you can make a joke out of things, you can take a different angle on something like mental health and have some humour and that’s how I got working with Action Mental Health.
“They had got in touch about organising a couple of gala shows to raise money for them. We did stand-up last year for them, and I think we’re going to do something again, a few comedy gigs next year.
“We did two really good nights. We’d sold out The MAC for a couple of nights and we had really good comedians on the line up such as Shane Todd, Mickey Bartlett, Emer Maguire, Andrew Ryan, Colin Geddis and people like that.”
Dave said his recent TV work had also included raising some awareness about mental health. “I think as well due to me being in the last couple of series of Blue Lights as a character who had mental health issues, it’s helped to shine a light on it as well.
“The amount of people that I’ve had saying to me about the role has maybe associated me a bit more with people who are really suffering from poor mental health. I think it’s good that people are looking at that and knowing there are different types of issues with mental health and different types of mental health and that it’s okay to talk about it.”
Jonny Smyth, Head of Fundraising and Communications at Action Mental Health, said they are thrilled to have Dave on board as an ambassador and for championing this challenge in support of Action Mental Health.
“Not only will his cycle raise vital funds to help support our services, but it will also spark important conversations around mental health and hopefully remind people that help is available,” she said.
“We’re calling on individuals, schools, workplaces and community groups to get involved – whether that’s by joining the virtual challenge, cheering Dave on, or making a donation.”
Donations can be made by texting DAVEFIVE or DAVETEN to 70085, or online at www.amh.org.uk/daves-cycle-for-mental-health
