On Sunday 15 March, a week after his 34th birthday, Leitrim native Breifne Earley cycled 103km from Decatur in Texas to the city of Dallas. The cycle went well. It didn’t rain, he didn’t get any punctures, there were no tricky border crossings or altercations with police, and he stopped for a nice lunch at a small diner in a town called Justin. The quiet hours on the bike were peaceful as the world rolled beneath his wheels, as they had been for each of the previous 380 days. Since 1 March 2014, Breifne has spent his days on his bike and his nights in cheap hotels and on strangers’ couches. Why? He wanted to raise awareness for suicide prevention, so he decided to cycle around the world. Roughly 13,000 miles into his 18,000-mile quest, it’s fair to say the last 14 months have proved quite the adventure, but life on the road today is a world away from where he found himself in October 2010, when he made the decision not to kill himself.
On Sunday 15 March, a week after his 34th birthday, Leitrim native Breifne Earley cycled 103km from Decatur in Texas to the city of Dallas. The cycle went well. It didn’t rain, he didn’t get any punctures, there were no tricky border crossings or altercations with police, and he stopped for a nice lunch at a small diner in a town called Justin. The quiet hours on the bike were peaceful as the world rolled beneath his wheels, as they had been for each of the previous 380 days.
Since 1 March 2014, Breifne has spent his days on his bike and his nights in cheap hotels and on strangers’ couches. Why? He wanted to raise awareness for suicide prevention, so he decided to cycle around the world. Roughly 13,000 miles into his 18,000-mile quest, it’s fair to say the last 14 months have proved quite the adventure, but life on the road today is a world away from where he found himself in October 2010, when he made the decision not to kill himself.
“I didn’t feel comfortable and I didn’t feel appreciated or respected in my job. I was just a couple of pounds shy of 20 stone and I’d been single for two years. I sat in my room one night and had made the decision that I was going to take my own life,” Breifne says.
“A few things happened. I had second thoughts in terms of the impact it would have on my friends and family. Even though I’d kind of cut myself off from everybody, I didn’t feel I could do that to them. My dad would’ve been in his 70s, Mum in her 60s, and I didn’t want to do that to my loved ones.
“I got a couple of text messages from friends. I watched two movies, The Bucket List and Yes Man, and I decided to take a bit of inspiration from those and a couple of other bits and pieces, and decided that on the 10th of the 10th 2010 that I would take on 10 personal challenges to try and put my life in a positive direction.”
His reasoning was clear: “If I can turn my life around, then I don’t need to take my own life. I gave that a shot and it’s without a shadow of doubt the best thing I’ve ever done.
“I wrote down the list of the 10 things I wanted to do and put it on Facebook. It was a simple list in isolation: lose a bit of weight; overcome a fear of public speaking or singing in public; travel; put money away; get a new job; go on a blind date every week; try and meet new people; learn to cook; learn to swim; and then a whole host of sports endeavours that I had challenged myself to do, starting with the indoor rowing championships, cycling around New Zealand and completing the Dublin city marathon as kind of the end of that, just before the 11th of the 11th 2011.”
Of the three triathlon disciplines of swimming, running and cycling, the latter proved the most fulfilling for Breifne.
“The cycling was something that just … immediately it was a release. I felt so much better mentally and physically every time I got up on two wheels.”
Cycle Against Suicide
Breifne heard about the Cycle Against Suicide in April 2013. The event was started by entrepreneur Jim Breen after his appearance on RTÉ’s The Secret Millionaire and has a simple message at its core: it’s OK not to feel OK and it’s absolutely OK to ask for help.
“I was sitting at home one day and I heard on the radio that it had started that day in Dublin. I decided to get involved. I registered to do the second half of the second week from my home in Leitrim back to where I was living in Dublin.”
The idea of cycling around the world had been on Breifne’s mind for a while at this stage and doing it for and with the support of Cycle Against Suicide seemed ideal.
“I approached Jim Breen. I had been listening to various speakers for three days talking about their experiences and what they had gone through and how they dealt with their own situations. It was like listening to a recording of myself, with the situation I’d been through two or three years previously. Jim could not have been more supportive. I sat down with him and the CEO of Cycle Against Suicide, Maghnus Collins … and two years later here I am in Texas.”
Breifne’s route across America takes him from where he is now in Texas all the way up to Boston, before taking part in the Cycle Against Suicide, which starts in Belfast on 27 April and takes in 1,400km over 14 days before finishing in Dublin on Sunday 10 May.
“I’m looking forward to going back and being part of this year’s event. It does such good work, particularly for that vulnerable age of 15- to 17/18-year-old students who haven’t quite realised that, you know, people have bad days. They haven’t quite grasped the concept of reaching out for that support and that’s vital.”
The stigma associated with suicide is fading in Ireland, Breifne feels.
“It’s definitely something that’s more and more OK to talk about. It’s important that people get the help they need. That help might be professional, it might be medical; it could just be friends and family. For me, it’s the exercise, but it’s different for every single person so everyone needs to work out what works for them.”
Challenges
Any journey through 24 countries on a bike is bound to have challenges, and Breifne’s has had its fair share.
“The main negative would be the two crashes. Crashing in Thailand and getting shaken down by the police as part of the process was probably the least pleasant of the experiences but it’s a life lesson – you learn to look after yourself and protect yourself a little bit more.
“In the entire year I’ve had two moments where I’ve thought, you know what, I’m just going to pack this in – I’m going to get on the next flight home and forget about it. Those two days, once in India and once in New Zealand, were both at the bottom of ridiculously high climbs and both in relatively poor weather: one in the ridiculous heat of 45-50 degrees in India; one in atrociously bad rain in New Zealand. Those moments have probably lasted less than five minutes each. You just say, that’s crazy, I’m just going to get back on the bike and I’m just going to keep going. And it passes.”
The good certainly outweighs the bad, though.
“Some of the locations have been amazing – the Grand Canyon, Big Sur, the Nullarbor desert, the Indian plateaux, the gulf of Thailand … just cycling along by those for days and days and days has been phenomenal.
“But the absolute highlight has been meeting so many amazing people. Nothing has come into it – religion, colour, race, sexuality. None of the issues that we hear about in the newspapers every day has been a single thought in anybody’s mind as to whether they’re going to help me or not. They have been so hospitable. They’ve offered me food, water, accommodation, support, friendship … it has been amazing – the lack of difference between anybody, given all those variables that change from person to person.
“It’s really just been a case of a human being needing help and another human being offering whatever help they can. And it’s not necessarily financial – it’s in resources, it’s in contacts offering places to stay down the road. So I’ll stay with one person and they’ll say: ‘I’ve got a friend in the next town,’ and they’ll make the phone call and they’ll set up a place to stay. That network of people has been amazing, particularly the Irish communities in the US, Australia and New Zealand.”
With 5,000 miles to go, once he reaches Boston and takes a lap around Ireland for the Cycle Against Suicide, Breifne will get back on the trail in Malaga and make his way up through Spain and France before finishing in London around the middle of June.
Where his journey takes him after that is still to be decided, but no matter what he does next, Breifne will be smiling.
“Life is pretty awesome. I’m having the time of my life and everything is amazing.” CL
BREIFNE’S JOURNEY
Distance covered so far: 21,500km
Countries: 24 of 25
Km/day: 100-120km
How many days per week are you cycling? “It really depends on the days and where I am. Last week I was on the bike seven days and did more than 600km. It’s very hit and miss. I was sick for a week in India and did 20km in the entire week. My longest week has been over 1,000km.
How many punctures have you had? “Thirty-four. Five in four miles one day!”
Gear and clothing: “I’ve got a backpack and a saddle bag. I’ve three sets of cycling gear, one pair of jeans, one pair of shorts, three pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear, two T-shirts and a shirt. You just keep washing the same stuff.”
• To follow Breifne’s progress, log on to www.facebook.com/pedaltheplanettv
• For more on Cycle Against Suicide, visit www.cycleagainstsuicide.com
If you have been affected by anything in this article, Samaritans is available for anyone in any type of distress on 1850-609090 in the Republic of Ireland and on 08457-909090 in Northern Ireland.
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