{"id":120799,"date":"2025-09-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/?p=120799"},"modified":"2025-09-17T18:55:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T08:55:43","slug":"stepping-forward-for-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/stepping-forward-for-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping forward for mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

A GEELONG local is bravely putting one foot in front of the other next month to raise funds for a vital cause.<\/p>\n

Annette Spurr will participate in the Black Dog Institute’s One Foot Forward campaign \u2013 a virtual walking challenge running through October for Mental Health Month.<\/p>\n

The national campaign encourages thousands of Australians to walk, run or move a distance that suits them to raise awareness of the five million Australians who experience a mental illness every year.<\/p>\n

Ms Spurr will be participating for a second consecutive year. She was first motivated to join the challenge after chatting to a colleague at Deakin University.<\/p>\n

“I am very keen to get started,” she said. “I am a bit of a couch potato, especially over winter, so this is also good motivation to get back out there and get moving, which is also good for both my mental and physical health.<\/p>\n

“This is a very personal cause for me because, like many others reading this, I have dealt with mental health struggles in my immediate family. I truly believe that if lots of us do a small part, together we can make a big difference.”<\/p>\n

Aside from her daily 1km walk to work, Ms Spurr plans to undertake two separate day hikes along the Barwon River and a day hike in the Grampians.<\/p>\n

She has set herself a $200 fundraising goal, but hopes to exceed this figure.<\/p>\n

“This year I am challenging myself to walk a little bit further and to raise double the amount,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have a presence on social media \u2013 yes, there are still a few of us out there \u2013 so I’ll mainly be sharing my goals with family and friends.<\/p>\n

“It’s fantastic that more of the funds raised by participants will go to help fund the vital research that the Black Dog Institute undertakes, and the services they provide.”<\/p>\n

To donate to the cause and for more information, head to onefootforward.org.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A GEELONG local is bravely putting one foot in front of the other next month to raise funds for a vital cause. Annette Spurr will participate in the Black Dog Institute’s One Foot Forward campaign \u2013 a virtual walking challenge running through October for Mental Health Month. The national campaign encourages thousands of Australians to […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":120801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-120799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStepping forward for mental health - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Geelong local joins Mental Health Walk for Black Dog Institute\u2019s One Foot Forward, raising funds and awareness this October.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/stepping-forward-for-mental-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stepping forward for mental health - 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