Mental health campaigner Glen Thurston is encouraging people to join him on a climb of Corner Peak at Lake Hāwea tomorrow (Friday October 27).

The climb marks the first anniversary of Glen’s 2022 campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues in the construction industry. At that time he climbed the mountain every day for 53 days to highlight the average number of suicides by construction workers each year.

More than 270 people joined Glen to summit Corner Peak (1,683m) as part of that campaign and he is inviting the public to join him again tomorrow.

“I'm going to do an annual climb, a one off,” Glen said.

“It was such a success [last year] and a lot of people missed out.”

Glen said that getting people out on the mountain and achieving something “pretty epic”  resulted in a lot of healthy conversations about mental well-being.

“I really just want to keep that conversation going because there were lots and lots and lots of conversations during and after,” he said.

“I want this to be part of people's normal life, having these conversations with their friends, going for walks up in the hills with their friends.”

Glen’s goal is to see a culture change where mental health is prioritised and ingrained in business through training and health and safety plans.

“I continually get people reaching out, asking where to go, who do they need their friend to turn to, sort of things like that,” he said. 

“I can only do so much, so the more people within the community that get the training or the education or understanding about mental health, the more people there are going to be for others to turn to.

“Something really needs to change and I don't believe it's in throwing money at services. It's in educating everyday people. That's where we're gonna make change in this whole pandemic.”

If you wish to join Glen and climb Corner Peak tomorrow he will leave from the Timaru Creek car park at 6am. 

“It's not going to be a race. It's just going to be a good cruisy day,” Glen said.

Facts about the climb:

• An ascent and descent of Corner Peak is a return trip of around 17km
• The elevation gain is 1,570m

Further details can be found here.

PHOTO: Supplied