Australian musician, Guy Sebastian has walked 500kms and raised a staggering $1 million dollars, all in the name of mental health.
Guy Sebastian has been one busy fellow since he won Australian Idol back in 2003. The singer/songwriter has released ten top albums, represented Australia at Eurovision and has been a coach on The Voice Australia for the last few years.
But that’s not all. Sebastian also created The Sebastian Foundation with his wife, Jules Egan. Formed in 2013, The Sebastian Foundation has worked on multiple projects that have bettered the Australian community over the years.
The latest project, ‘Step Change For Mental Health’ just took place and Sebastian himself was heavily involved. After a 12-year-old Wagga Wagga girl went for a walk but then tragically took her own life because of severe online bullying last year, Sebastian and his best friend, Tim Freeburn, pledged to walk the 500kms from Wagga Wagga to Sydney, to ultimately raise funds for mental health programs to be run in schools across Australia.
The gruelling walk took Sebastian and Freeburn 14 days to complete and raised a whopping $1 million. As a result, Dr Hayley Watson, clinical psychologist and school mental health expert, praised Sebastian on LinkedIn.
“This incredible man is not only a pop star and a legend in his own right… He and his best mate just walked 500kms across rural NSW over the past 14 days, raising an incredible $1 million…”
Dr Hayley Watson
Dr Watson also further explained how this incredible program will work now that it’s got some serious funding behind it.
“The program provides schools with weekly student mental health lessons for the whole school year, based around documentary stories of real youth sharing their stories of overcoming challenges, to break down barriers of prejudice and stigma. There is also support for parents and teachers, as they navigate the vitally important role of shaping healthy, whole young minds”.
Dr Hayley Watson
Sebastian is yet to post about completing the walk and reaching his fundraising goal of $1 million. But he did post some footage of the walk on Instagram last week, when he and Freeburn were almost halfway from Wagga Wagga to Sydney, and wrote, “Wow we are feeling it today. Not an inch on our bodies aren’t aching.”
WATCH: Guy Sebastian at the halfway point of his Step Change For Mental Health walk…
Whether you’re a fan of his music or not, you can’t deny this was a seriously impressive feat and Sebastian deserves Australia’s ultimate respect; sorry Shannon Noll fans… But hey, at least Sebastian used Nollsy’s song Lift in his video (which you can watch above).
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