Mental health community joins the Push-Up Challenge to raise funds for headspace Geraldton

A group of volunteers and social workers are raising the bar and completing more than 3000 push-ups this month to fundraise for youth mental health centre headspace Geraldton. The 2024 Push-Up Challenge is well under way, as participants across Australia push for better mental health by completing 3249 push-ups over 24 days. The number of push-ups represents the thousands of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2022. In Geraldton, an abundance of people have committed to the annual challenge — running from June 5-28 — to improve their fitness and wellbeing while raising funds for important mental health organisations headspace, Lifeline or The Push for Better Foundation. Volunteers from community groups Geraldton Suicide Prevention Action Group and Repeat Offenders have teamed up with headspace Geraldton workers to raise funds for their local branch. The team of 13 have raised a total of $2470, which will go directly towards supporting local young people through their mental health journey. Headspace Geraldton manager May Doncon said committing to the challenge promoted resilience, healthy habits and more awareness of mental health. “The money that is raised will be used towards many of our programs that we are running at the moment for young people, which we don’t necessarily get funding for,” she said. “It’s also about building good habits. If you do something every day, you start building a habit. So it ties in very nicely with youth mental health.” Ms Doncon said there were many referrals coming through from youth struggling with mental health in the community. “We see a lot of young people aged 12 to 25 who come in seeking support for help for a lot of issues like depression and anxiety, and our service is here to help them out,” she said. The fundraiser has options to suit all fitness levels, with daily mental health statistics and progress trackers available for motivation. To view the community fundraiser, visit thepushupchallenge.com.au/fundraiser/geraldtonandmidwest. Lifeline: 13 11 14