Hi there. Its me again, I've come up with another way to push myself beyond my limits, and in the process experience a great deal of discomfort raising money for a fantastic cause. I hope you'll stick around to find out what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and how you (yes you) can support this effort.

For my Movember challenge this year, I will be lifting 700kg powerlifting style and then following this up immediately with a half Ironman. For the uninitiated, this breaks down to: a 260kg squat, a 160kg bench press, a 280kg deadlift, a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride, and a 21.1km run. All one after the other. Unlike my previous 200 mile in a day bike ride, this will test my strength and stamina across 6 different disciplines, and make for a truly grueling workout.

But why, I don't hear you ask? Well, if I'm honest, I love things like this. I love being able to push myself out of my comfort zone. I love the process, I love adapting training to whatever obstacles may arise, and I have such a great passion for showing myself just how much I'm capable of. Having spent years struggling with anxiety and bouts of depression, always being driven by what I perceived others expectations of me to be, to now be able to forge my own path and do exactly what I want has been a game changer for my quality of life. 

But my ability to push myself so far, and enjoy doing so, can only exist due to my access to quality mental health resources, an employer that respects and supports me as an individual, nutritious food, adequate downtime, and most important of all, a stable living situation.

All of the above underpin mental wellbeing, and so this Movember I wanted to do something a little different by raising funds for Shelter. Because while counselling is cracking, and therapy is fantastic, neither will be all that effective if you don't have anywhere to live. To quote a psychologist, writing in the Guardian "Will six sessions of CBT, designed to target “unhelpful” thinking styles, really be effective for someone who doesn’t know how they’re going to feed their family for another week?".

Please consider donating to, sharing, or supporting my page, or any other fantastic charities that give people resource security. Because access to a stable living situation is as much about mental wellbeing as access to mental health services.