Scott Plunkett has lost one too many mates to the black dog. Losing his brother in 2019 started Scott on his journey to get people talking to each other and to raise money to help through the Black Dog Institute.
Last year Scott, his mate Shannon and ten others walked from the Conveyor Partners Mt Thorley workshop to the Wollombi Tavern as part of the Black Dog’s One Foot Forward Campaign. The campaign sees participants walk 50 kilometres throughout the month of October, but the boys decided to do it in one go.
Last year they raised $10,000 and this year they are aiming even higher for $15,000 when they tackle the walk on October 17.
Scott said losing a couple more mates since the last walk gave him even more motivation to hit the tarmac again.
“It’s a cause so close to our hearts. We’re not only doing it this year in honour of my late brother but in honour of another two mates who got caught by the black dog, leaving behind young children, partners and family that will never get the answers they are looking for.”
Last year the walk took Scott and his mates a little over 11 hours to walk with the crew racking up nearly 70,000 steps in their mission to walk the 50 kilometres to Wollombi Tavern.
Scott said the toughest part of the walk last year was the last 15 kilometres.
“The hardest part was the last 15. Everybody was starting to hurt and every time we looked at how far we had to go we had barely ticked over a kilometre; it was so hard not to give up and stay mentally focused.
“One of the mates who did it last year also runs marathons, and he said to me ‘Scotty the marathon doesn’t start until you hit 35 kilometres’, and he was 100 per cent right!
“It was very emotional once we got to the end. We couldn’t believe we’d done it, and hopefully we saved one life. If we got just one person to speak last year on the walk, or elsewhere then that is a win.
“The hardest part is getting people to talk – I get it. I’m pretty stubborn at times!”
The walk this year is on October 17 with 25 people already putting their hand up to walk with Scott. Due to the larger number of people, two support vehicles will be there for the walk equipped with first aid, water, food, etc.
It’ll finish at the Wollombi Tavern again with a raffle and an auction with great prizes already coming in including a Newcastle Knights signed jersey thanks to young gun Fletcher Sharpe.
| If you’d like to join Scott for the walk get in touch: Email – bull28884@gmail.com Phone – 0466546564 To donate to Scott’s One Foot Forward campaign for the Black Dog Institute scan the QR code. |
