For a better day

I am Robert de Jong, 61 years old, married to Trish de Jong, I have two daughters Anna and Katie

Trish and I live in Hamilton. I work full time for Festo Ltd, as Automation Consultant.

I am cycling the Tour of Aotearoa in February 2021, as a 30 day long adventure.

To give meaning and purpose to this adventure, I have selected the topic of depression and suicide, something I am familiar with. To add to this, our friend lost his son last year to suicide. It seemed appropriate to me to include the memory of his son in my adventure.

My friend works for Youthline, so it seemed logical to choose is Youthline as the charity I would like to support. I am hoping by bringing these different aspects together that I am able to continue to raise awareness about depression and suicide. I want to highlight the wonderful work Youthline does so that we can better understand and help to prevent our young people taking these desperate actions of suicide.

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the mental health of young New Zealanders. During the lockdown period, texts to the Youthline National Helpline increased by 50%. Of the hundreds of texts Youthline receive each day, 1 in 5 is related to suicide.

Youthline’s Helpline service receives only $90,000 a year in funding from the Government and costs around $1.1 Million a year to run. That means that we rely on the generosity of people like you to keep the service running.

Please make a donation today to support Youthline and help me get to my goal:

$30 - Allows Youthline to respond to 120 texts

$60 - Keeps Youthline's phone, text and email service operating for one hour

$120 - Gives eight young people 10 minutes of much needed telephone support each

$500 - Allows Youthline to respond to 600 texts

I have setup a Facebook page, and will be sharing my preparation and training for the Tour of Aotearoa. I would like to invite you to join me - https://www.facebook.com/rob.dejong.1232760 on a dedicated Facebook Page and follow me on my journey to support healthy discussion about depression, mental health and raise awareness about suicide in New Zealand.

I know this year has been tough for all New Zealanders so I’d like to thank you for your donation to support young people struggling with their mental health.

Robert