This will be the 9th time I saddle up for the Ride for Youth - and my passion for the cause is stronger than ever.
Youth suicide and the mental health issues afflicting vulnerable young people are problems we must address together as a society. The social and economics costs of not doing so are enormous.
Youth Focus provides unlimited free and confidential counselling to young people in need - the counsellors are passionate, extremely capable and caring and the organisation is run to maximise both spending and focus on helping young people.
All reasons I do what I can to raise money and awareness for the cause. By way of reference, it costs approximately $3,000 to provide counselling to a young client for the typical 6-month period spent with Youth Focus - and the results are compelling with thankfully no suicide among the 25,000 young people Youth Focus has helped over recent years. This year Youth Focus will help close to 4,000 people and a large part of the funds to do this come through donations to the Ride for Youth.
I thank you for supporting this great cause - your generous donation will make a real difference to the life of a vulnerable young person.