Sydney walk for a cause

Inspired by friends who had taken their own lives, a Dalyellup man embarked on a trek across the country in a bid to raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Equipped with only the bare essentials, a three-wheeled cart and his own company, Dean Summers took off for Sydney on the Walk for Hope last August.

“I’ve had a few friends take their life through suicide and I’ve suffered myself with depression,” Mr Summers said.

“I had a mate that took his life two months before I left.

“I put everything together in two months and headed off.”

Mr Summers took a flag on his journey to be signed by all the people he came across that had their own experiences with mental health or suicide.

“As I travelled across the country I got families who had lost someone to suicide to sign their name and that was my inspiration,” he said.

“It was just a matter of staying focused and thinking about the people on the flag and what the walk was accomplishing.”

Restrictions enforced in Sydney in response to the coronavirus outbreak changed the final destination from Bondi to the airport.

“It was just too hard to get around and to get into the city and the Bondi area was a bit of a hotspot,” Mr Summers said.

Mr Summers arrived home to a near empty Perth Airport and little fanfare.

“I can’t even see my friends yet,” he said.

Not content with stopping there, Mr Summers will walk from the top of New Zealand to the bottom next year.

“We’ve raised a huge amount of awareness, and I know for sure that we’ve helped some people make the right choice instead of the wrong choice,” he said.