Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: The Teenager's Running For Mental Health Awareness

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

We chat to two inspirational teenage boys from Auckland as they embark on running 100km each across 10 days all for mental health awareness!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits with a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben. Of course, this week is Mental Health Awareness Week. You can go to the website mhaw.nz. They've got some really good tips on how you can improve your mental health and feel a bit better this week, which is awesome. And there's a couple of young guys who are doing a great initiative off their own bat this week, and they join us right now over Zoom. Dylan and Lewis, explain what you're doing for Mental Health Awareness Week.

Oh, yes. So pretty much what we'll be doing is we'll be running 100 kilometres each over the course of 10 days. And it's a fundraiser for the Mental Health Foundation over the course of Mental Health Awareness Week in New Zealand. And we wanted it to be, you know, a little bit more talked about, and so we wanted to do our bit for mental health. And so we'll be running 100 kilometres each over the course of 10 days.

100 kilometres each. So how are you breaking it down over the 10 days? So we were thinking about that. We were like, do we do like a big day one day, like go do a 15 and then do like a five the next day? But we're just going to do just 10K flat each day. And it is 10K for both of us. A couple of our mates are like, oh, you guys only do 5K each.

So you're having to work this in because I can see you guys only do 5K each. We're like, nah. So you're having to work this in because I can see you guys over the Zoom now and you look like you're wearing your school uniforms. So you've got to factor this in with around your school time as well. Yeah, hard out. So last week is school, you know, a bit of busy schedules.

But then, like, we only have five days of this and then holidays will start so it'll become a little bit more relaxed. But it is definitely hard sort of bending it into life. I think we're running what 8 o'clock tonight Dylan once he's off work so

it's sort of hard getting around schedules. Tonight we'll be running at 8pm and then tomorrow morning we'll be up again at 6.30 so we're just

making it work however. Are you juggling running, school and work? Oh yeah man I do it all. You do it all mate.

You guys are overachieving already. You really are. What a wonderful course. Now, because we are zooming into your bedrooms at the moment, is this the first time you've done radio interviews in your bedrooms? Because it's the first time I've been interviewing teenage boys in their bedrooms.

Oh, first time I've done a radio interview full stop, so add the bedrooms to that too. You guys put out, yeah, so when did you put out the little video you put it out on the internet? It's sort of gone viral. A lot of people sharing it around. When did it get released? We did that, I think,

probably the day before we released it. So we released it on Friday and we wanted to sort of have like a run in time just to sort of promote it a bit. And then I think we expected like a decently positive reaction, but it just went nuts. Like just, you know, people from all circles.

So it was real cool. Yeah, yeah. It kind of spoke to how much of like it is an issue that people care about because we didn't expect it to get so much, you know, so much sort of traction. But, you know, it sort of showed that people do care about this and they're willing to support us. It was a real motivation, especially while we're running.

Oh, that's awesome. So you're trying to raise money as well. You set yourself a goal as well as running all those kilometres. What's the goal for the money? For the money, so that's 10 grand. When I checked last night, we were, what were we doing, maybe seven? About 7.5, nearly. Yeah, so we've been going pretty awesome with that.

Obviously, 10 grand's the goal. You should get any contributions to that. And so that's just going to go towards the Mental Health Foundation helping to just provide people and business places and schools and everything and I'll tell you with funds to help people I guess

work on their mental well-being. So you're two and a half grand away from it and I'm here to tell you that Ben Boyce is here, he's stepping it up to get you to that 10k mark What a this guy Appreciate it Ben here. You're stepping it up. To get you to that 10k mark. What a this guy. Appreciate it, Ben.

Thank you, Ben. Guys, the Zoom's cutting out just a little bit through that thing, but anyway. No, what a wonderful course you're doing. And just for your generation, obviously you guys are at school, is mental health talked about a lot more? Because we didn't discuss it at all when we were growing up.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess even in my sort of five years at school, I've seen like a huge increase in sort of how much it's been discussed, which has been pretty cool. I think there's always sort of a stigma. Like even if you just maybe go into like student services, like the school council aspect of things.

Like back in my third form or year nine, it was like, oh, you're going to the council. Like boys sort of had almost a negative reaction to it. But now like it's pretty common. So there's definitely been a huge sort of increase in not only how aware people are, but also how supportive people are. And growing up too in the digital age, the internet has added a whole other layer of stress to you guys. I mean, I think, especially with our generation, it has gotten a bit better, but I think it's just still an issue that hasn't quite

been talked about enough. It would be nice to see some education on mental health in schools, people coming in to talk about it. I know that Louis this week, he's done some work for Mental Health Awareness Week. He's getting some speakers in for his school, and I put on a little Mental Health Awareness Week for my school a couple weeks back. Oh, good on you, boys. Well done.

Well done. Good on you. You seem like great young guys. Good luck schooling, working, running 100Ks, doing it all. Where can people come and find you guys, follow the journey, donate if they want to donate? So I guess come to the Instagram. Each step is a good one. Just spelled out like

that. In there, there'll be a link to the fundraiser just in the bio. So go click on that too. And I think there's, yeah, primary modes of sort of checking us out. Each step is a good one, honestly. Thank you very much, guys. Good on you. What a great job you're doing.