With a determined heart and aching feet, Sarah McFarlane of Melbourne embarked on a 1750km walk through Spain to raise awareness and funding for people who suffer from mental illness and their families. This long walk took 10 weeks to complete, starting in France and finishing in Spain.
Sarah, age 31, has experienced the agony of mental illness first hand when her brother Ben, a sufferer of schizophrenia, died of a mental illness-related accident in 2001. Because Ben was well medicated, he was able to live a full life, working as a gardener, and had many friends and a supportive family. However, when he returned home from overseas travel, tiredness and a change of medication threw Ben into a severe episode that cost him his life.
In the same year, Sarah began to work as a volunteer for a charity organisation called "Sane Australia". It is a national charity that gives support to people affected by mental illness, awareness raising and a stigma watch to keep an eye on derogatory products or media.
"Such inaccurate portrayals of mental illness sufferers in the media are misleading and damaging to society. I can either remain angry or do something to improve or change the mental health system," Sarah explains.
Inspired to help others she launched herself into organising personal walk-a-thons for this worthy cause. The first walk, the Bibbulmun Trail in Western Australia, was one that Sarah and brother Ben had planned to do previously, sharing a love for trekking and nature.
In Ben's absence, Sarah completed the 550km walk accompanied by Ben's best friend. They raised over $10,000 for charity and stopped to talk to schools, media and community groups along the way about Ben's story and the facts on Mental Illness, thereby shattering
The Myths of Mental Illness
Sarah remembers: "The Bibbulmun walk was very important for my own grief, development and acceptance of Ben's death. It was in the last 100km's of the walk, I promised myself and Ben that I would walk to 'Santiago De Compestela'(a famous pilgrim route in Spain)."
To set up the ongoing project Sarah sent out a self-written electronic newsletter to 30 people called "Walking Feat". This newsletter was created to share Sarah's personal feelings and challenges and to encourage others to also share their stories related to mental health and illness. Six weeks later, 300 people from all over the globe were openly sharing their courageous and solemn experiences of living with mental illness. "It is so important to talk about mental illness because it is so common and prevalent. People feel alone with it, but that's not true," Sarah explained.
To prepare for this long walk alone, Sarah worked 7 days a week to save money and worked out at the gym in the evenings to build muscle strength and improve fitness. She began contacting MP's, Council members and community groups, such as Rotary and the Lions Club, to let them know of the upcoming charity event.
The Santiago De Compestela Trail dealt out its fair share of physical and mental challenges to Sarah, but her pioneering spirit saw her make it to the end, a compassionate act to help others like Ben.
"I spent a lot of time on the walk meditating, to keep my mind in the here and now, making it easier for me. Through the silence and solitude I realised that humans need more than food and water to survive; we need communication and togetherness," Sarah said.
When she returns to Australia Sarah hopes to organise an ongoing art project to link Australian schools to help educate children and teenagers about mental health and illness, as two separate topics. Sarah's main message for young Australians is about taking positive action in one's life; "learning how to harness feelings and using them in a positive way for yourself and the community. "So many people feel that their voices are too small to make a difference," says Sarah, but she has definitely shown many people that this is not the case.
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