2018 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, a personal perspective

With the 2018 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride campaign having been the most successful to date, raising $6.06M USD in funds for prostate cancer research and men's mental health on behalf of the Movember Foundation, I wanted to upload a copy to my profile of what I feel to be the work that I'm most proud of, EVER.

The 2018 DGR launch video is undoubtedly the work that I'm most closely connected with, and I'm forever grateful that I was given the opportunity to realise a vision that I had in my mind for the last two years. A film that could not have been achieved without a brilliant network of volunteers, including a cast of friends from Sydney Cafe' Racers and the crews from MY Media Sydney and Nylon Studios for making it a reality.

Perhaps it's because personally I've been in some pretty heavy places mentally of late, perhaps it's because prostate cancer is hereditary and likely to affect me in years to come, perhaps it was the people that reached out to DGR over the years to tell us their stories that helped to steer the path of what is a very direct and hard hitting launch video that pulls no punches, I'll never know, it just flowed.

This year has seen many people close to me, and many that I've gotten to know along the way, particularly participants and supporters of the DGR tell me why the event means so much to them, all of them inspirational, all of them bringing a tear to my eye.

It's especially been an eye opener seeing people within my FB network, whether they ride motorcycles or have heard of DGR or not tell their stories of how mental health has affected them, of the people that they've lost to suicide or are suffering in silence themselves, what I'm seeing is way, way too many to bare and frightens me to think I might lose someone close to me that is too shy or embarrassed to talk about what they are going through.

What I've also encountered is a huge number of men and women that have lost loved ones to prostate cancer, a disease as we know with early detection can help save lives. A disease that kills way too many men globally.

If the message in the 2018 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride launch video has saved one life, just one, then it's job done, however, saving one person is not enough, so please, if you're in need of support, reach out, there is always hope....