Riding my bike around the world was always going to present challenges, but when I rode out of London back in April 2024, I was unaware of what they would be. To many, riding a bike for hours everyday through some of the most inhospitable environments on earth and wild camping each night would be nightmarish but for me, it’s what makes me tick and I was incredibly excited for the months ahead as a lifelong dream became reality.

I settled into the new routine over the first couple of weeks as I rode across Europe and all was going smoothly until a terrifying encounter in Italy where a man tried to pull me off my bike to steal everything I had. I got away without losing any kit but was pretty shaken up. Less than a month later, I found myself staring up the barrel of a shotgun in a remote, mountainous corner of Albania as a drunk shepherd tried to extort money to let me continue - I challenging situation when I was about to leave the country so had spent all of my remaining local currency to fill my pockets with biscuits… a story for another day!

From this point onwards, everything became much harder than I could’ve imagined with nightmare flashbacks waking me every night and frequent panic attacks making the simple yet essential daily task of riding the bike a real challenge. By the time I rolled into southern North Macedonia, I ground to a halt. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep and terrified by the extent to which I had lost control; it was a struggle to get out of bed, dressed and fed, let alone to ride the bike.

I couldn’t hide it anymore despite my best efforts to share an optimistic, positive outlook and concerned friends and family knew something was up. I knew it too but couldn’t identify the problem so eventually took the advice to seek some help - to be batted away by an unsympathetic GP receptionist was the last thing I needed!

As an alternative, a friend suggested bigmoose so I filled out an online form and went to sleep. I woke the following morning with emails arranging remote sessions with a therapist who immediately understood what was going on. Over the months that followed, we worked through what was causing the range of PTSD symptoms I was experiencing and I began to return to a version of myself that I recognised. It’s a work in progress with a somewhat challenging lifestyle surrounded by unknowns not conducive to recovery, but I’m still riding my bike around the world which is more than I could foresee back in Eastern Europe.

Bigmoose is a charity with three core aims: to provide fast support to help people with their mental health, to prevent suicide and to reduce homelessness. The support I’ve received from bigmoose has undoubtedly been instrumental in allowing me to continue this adventure and crucially, for it to be a positive experience.

I feel I owe an enormous debt to bigmoose for the tireless work they do to provide help when we need it most. The primary goal of the second half of my bike ride around the world is to raise funds to ensure others can get support fast when they need it most.

We’d hit this fundraising target if each instagram follower donated just 7p so no donation is too small!

More soon, ciao x