Community
12 May, 2023
Raising money for mental health
Young woman walking 5000km along east coast to raise money for Black Dog Institute
CASSOWARY Coast residents are being urged to get behind Bailey Seamer who is walking the entire east coast of Australia bringing awareness about mental health. In May last year, the 23-year-old left Wilsons Promontory to walk 5000km to the most northern tip of Cape York Peninsula.
Tomorrow the Cardwell Chamber of Commerce is hosting ‘An evening with Bailey’, a fundraiser to support her cause as she gets closer to her goal of the tip of the Cape. The event is at the Cardwell Country Club from 5pm.
Ms Seamer is aiming to raise $100,000 for the Black Dog Institute and highlight mental health advocacy and education on her walk. The ‘Wandering Minds Walk’ is her one-woman trek along the east coast of Australia.
She has been following the foot trails through some of the most rugged terrain in the world, motivated to join the growing movement and conversations around mental health awareness, with the intention of raising funds for the Black Dog Institute and their ongoing commitment to research, resources, and services.
Ms Seamer said she was walking “in comradery of people living with mental health conditions day to day”.
“It is also for those yet to be diagnosed and treated and the tough journeys that they have ahead of them,” she said. “But it is especially in hope for future generations to inherit better acceptance, treatments, and managements.”
Ms Seamer said she intended to explore what mental health support resources were available and accessible to people along the east coast of Australia and advocate for people to access supports and treatments.
The ambitious goal of walking the east coast stems from her personal journey living with bipolar disorder.
Through adaptation and management, she has developed tools for mental health which can benefit many people, with hiking and connecting with nature being a major component.
Ms Seamer said it was coupled with a strong desire to provide all she could to others, and her dream was to assist with education while encouraging a pragmatic and open attitude surrounding mental health.
“The walk is a metaphor of life with bipolar and reflects my own personal journey,” she said.
“It will be tough and long. There will be good days and bad. Uphill battles and downhill slides, with the mentality of just putting one foot in front of the other and taking one day at a time to conquer the bigger goal.
“The walk to many, seems impossible to achieve. Just like recovery seems to a person who is diagnosed with a chronic mental health disorder.
“I want to show that if you have a mental health condition, that with the right treatment and commitment to surviving the tough times you can aim to achieve great things, both big and small, toward cumulatively having a long fulfilling life irrespective of what path you must walk to get there.
“If you just hang in there, day after day, pushing forward, bit by bit, with the love and support that surrounds you, we can all create a life worth living. One step at a time.”
