Inaugural 24-hour event hailed a success

EVENT organisers are hailing the inaugural Shaka 24 Run for Prevention event a success with more than 100 runners in attendance.

Held at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus on Friday and Saturday last week, the challenge brought participants together for a team relay across a 12 or 24 period, all in the name of mental health.

Organised by the Shaka Project, the main goal of the event was to ignite conversations about mental health.

Shaka Project director Sean Phillip said he felt like they achieved their goal, with plenty of support on display throughout the two days.

“We were really hoping to get people from different communities, so those that run often to those that just want to come and have that conversation.

“That was achieved really early, which is fantastic, we’ve got people that have never run longer than 5km and they’ve come along and they’ve achieved 50km, or 60km, or 70km or 80km within the 24 hours purely because of the other runners and encouragement.”

While the event hosted 110 registered runners there were also a large number of community members who headed along to show their support.

Mr Phillip said they were blown away by the locals who attended.

“Locals came down and friends came down and really supported them in their journey and having a chat.”

All funds raised from the event will go towards delivering suicide prevention initiatives and programs around Australia.