He has run over 1,300km across Tasmania to raise awareness of mental health, and captured the heart of the community in the same stride. We give the mic to Dillon, who shares his thoughts with us, as he recovers from this extraordinary effort:

“WOW. What a journey! I still can’t believe it’s all happened, and I’ve pulled off what I wanted to do…

Raise positive mental health awareness in support of SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY! ✅

Collect donations for SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY so they can continue to do the amazing work they do around the state of Tasmania. ✅

Attempting to complete a 1,300km run in the span of 21 Days around parts of Tasmania ✅

My motivation to do this was to spread awareness and raise funds for a much worthy cause (SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY!) while pushing my limits in running. I also got to see the beautiful state I live in, Tasmania, and to connect with people around the state about mental health awareness.

When things got really tough, I thought back to my why. My Why is to raise positive mental health awareness. And when I was struggling, I was thinking of everyone that unfortunately are faced with struggles when it comes to mental health.

I drew a parallel between pushing through the highs and lows of my journey with this fundraising run, and mental health: some days you are on top of the world loving life, then there are times where things are really tough and you don’t think you will get out of it and through it.

By staying positive, and fighting with everything you’ve got to push through, there is a light at the end of the tunnel but by all means you will also most likely experience low points again. But what I have learned is that by speaking up and staying chatty, it is possible to get back up to your ‘best self’ again.

I believe I’ve showed exactly that with my efforts in this fundraising run. I got hit with some big challenges but I just had to keep showing up, staying positive when things were really low and hard. I then came out of it and was on such a high.

I can’t thank my family enough for all the amazing support. I couldn’t have done this without all the amazing sponsors who jumped on board too!

Thanks so much 🙏🏻💙💙💙

To the amazing humans who were my Support crew, thanks for everything!

Couldn’t have done it without you guys 💙💙💙

I made some pretty special connections along the journey, meeting new people and feeling the  incredible amount of support from the whole State of Tasmania. It was very much appreciated, and needed!!!

I’ve learned so much more about myself throughout this challenge, and I encourage everyone to set their own goals and push themselves to undertake it.

It was the best feeling in the world crossing the finish line after everything I went through during my adventures across Tasmania: so many sacrifices were made in the lead up and during the run, and I can honestly say that it was totally worth it 🙌🏻”