Putting the wheels in motion

The back story

Firstly, this is quite difficult to write about so bear with me…

Back in 2024 I lost a colleague to suicide. The heart breaking news came as a complete surprise. He was a genuine lovely individual, an absolute pleasure to work with, and with a friendly cheerful personality. We had no idea he was going through such tough times. Then in 2025 I lost a second colleague to suicide from my team. He was another lovely person, full of potential, and a credit to the community as a volunteer fire fighter. Again, we had no idea what he was going through.

For my second colleague I had the responsibility of informing co-workers of the loss. This is by far the most heart breaking thing I’ve ever had to do. Following his funeral the profound realisation set in of the ripple effect; deeply impacted colleagues, friends, family and children - the heart ache of losing someone too soon, the shock of not knowing what they were going through, and wondering if there was something that could have been done to help them.

We will miss them enormously and our thoughts remain with their families.

Tough To Talk

After losing my second colleague I was introduced to postvention - support and healing for the bereaved to address the ripple effect of suicide. It was at this time I spoke with Steve Whittle from the charity Tough To Talk. As well as being a genuine caring individual and checking in, Steve opened up my eyes to the statistics. In 2024 there were 6,190 registered suicides in the England and Wales, 74% of those were men. You can find more information about the numbers here.

After seeing the ripple effect first hand I wanted to know what could be done for suicide prevention, and how I can help. This is where Tough to Talk comes in as the UK's leading Men's Mental Heath charity dedicated to “breaking the silence that leads to suicide”. We’ll cover more on their amazing work later.

The idea

At this point I was inspired to help. Firstly, I wanted to raise money for Tough To Talk, to support their important work with organisations and communities. Secondly, I wanted to inspire people to talk, breaking the silence and preventing crisis. This is when the idea of ‘Break the Cycle’ was born. As a passionate cyclist and chair of a trail association with a long-term goal to promote health and wellbeing through cycling, I felt a bikepacking challenge would be a worthy ambition to help reduce the numbers of those affected by suicide.

Putting the wheels in motion

So, after talking about this with friends and family for the past few months, I’ve now committed myself to this challenge. With help from some great people, we have started planning the route, gathering kit, and figuring out how we share the message to raise money and inspire.

If you have got this far, thank you for reading the brief story about my colleagues and my plans to help make a difference. If you can, please share this story and help break the cycle.

Cheers, Sam.