Runners and walkers across Greater Geelong will take on a 12- or 24-hour relay challenge to raise money and awareness for mental health.
The Shaka 24: Run for Prevention challenge will bring the community together to run, raise hope and create change over two days at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus.
The Shaka Project director Sean Phillip said the event was aimed at igniting conversations around mental health, reducing stigma and supporting free suicide prevention workshops across the country.
“It’s all a team effort, so we’ve got runners joined up as a team and essentially the only rule is that one person on your team has to be on the track at all times,” he said.
“We’ve got around 115 runners signed up, which is great… and there will be a lot of people from different communities coming together for one message.
“When it comes to mental health, community is everything and loneliness is a really big thing that’s unfortunately affecting a lot of people around Australia.”
Mr Phillip said the event would also have a seating area available, along with a nine-minute tribute walk.
“The nine-minute walk represents the nine people that we lose every day to suicide here in Australia, so we really encourage people to come down for that,” he said.
The 24-hour run will begin at 6pm on Friday 17 October, and the 12-hour run will start at 5am on Saturday 18 October.
