Warning: This story discusses suicide.
Ben Pettingill was 16 years old when he awoke one morning to discover he had lost 98 per cent of his vision.
“I still remember clearly the first time coming home from hospital, putting a cup under the tap, turning the tap on and then the [water] spilling over the top because I didn’t know when to turn it off,” he said.
The now 29-year-old was diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) — a rare inherited eye condition that causes sudden and irreversible blindness, according to the Centre for Eye Research Australia.
The Victorian father-of-two said he found it difficult to adjust following his diagnosis but put on a “brave face”.
“Every time people around me were asking me how I was going, how I was coping, how I was feeling, I was putting up walls and going, ‘Nah, I’m fine, I’m sweet, it’s not that bad … even though none of that was the truth,” he said.
“And the more I did that, the worse my mental health got.”
After several years of bottling his feelings up, Mr Pettingill said he reached a tipping point.
“And it was a moment with my dad where I actually spilled that bottle out, had a conversation with him, burst into tears and recognised the importance of talking to someone, being honest with the way you felt,” he said.
“And that was a huge turning point for me with my mental health.”
Ben Pettingill says there is still stigma around mental health particularly for blue-collar workers. (ABC News: Justin Hewitson)
A run with an important mission
Mr Pettingill now works as a motivational speaker, often talking with tradies, truck drivers and farmers.
Inspired by his own mental health journey and by conversations with others, Mr Pettingill set a goal of running 9 kilometres a day to raise $3,249 for not-for-profit blue-collar counselling service This is a Conversation Starter (TIACS).
The organisation aims to reduce the physical and financial barriers for blue-collar workers to access mental health support by providing free phone and text counselling services.
Adelaide runner Bridget Johnson is one of the many people who have joined Ben on his daily runs. (ABC News)
“Speaking to all these people around the country, men especially, I was hearing and seeing firsthand the impact that this stigma around mental health was having,” Mr Pettingill said.
“Knowing that we lost in 2022, in Australia, 3,249 lives to suicide was something that upsets me, makes me angry and makes we want to do something about it.”
“That’s where I came up with the idea. It’s nine lives a day, so it then became 9 kilometres a day — a kilometre for every life lost to suicide.”
Mr Pettingill said he was hoping to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health as well as the barriers to accessing support that blue-collar workers face.
Jason Banks says blue-collar workers and their loved ones face physical, financial and social barriers to accessing mental health support. (Supplied: Jason Banks)
TIACS co-chief executive, Jason Banks, said men in regional areas or those working outside of traditional business hours could find it hard to access mental health support.
“If you think about farmers and those working in rural parts of Australia, if you think about truckies, if you think about tradies, you know, they’re on the tools or working for those core hours of the day, whether that’s 5am in the morning right through until probably sundown, when do they get the chance to reach out and connect?” he said.
Mr Banks said it was important for people to check in with their mates or loved ones if they notice signs that “may be out of character” or “things that may be changing in their behaviours or mannerisms”.
Ben travels the country for work, squeezing in a run wherever he can. (ABC News)
People around Australia join the cause
Mr Pettingill travels around the country for work and when he is in unfamiliar territory he puts a call-out on social media for running partners to act as his sighted guides – someone who gives vocal cues about changes in terrain and direction.
“They’ll be telling me when we’re turning, when there’s a step up, when there’s a step down, counting me into those steps and speaking the whole time,” he said.
One of those is Adelaide local Bridget Johnson, who had no prior experience as a sighted guide when she first met Mr Pettingill in Rockhampton.
“He gave me some pretty clear guidance as to how to guide him and we just had a laugh and felt it out together. No one ended up in the Rockhampton river so I’d say it was a success,” she said.
Bridget says Ben’s fundraiser has “sparked conversations” with her own family and friends. (ABC News)
The pair have since completed several runs and a half-marathon together.
“I really respect what he’s doing in his run challenge this year and in raising money for TIACS,” Ms Johnson said.
Ms Johnson said she was “100 per cent on board with the cause”.
“I think mental health particularly regionally, and particularly in lots of male-dominated workforces, is a massive thing,” she said.
Mr Pettingill plans to finish his last run on New Year’s Eve and hopes the stigma of speaking about men’s mental health will soon end, too.
“I think that stigma that still exists, it needs to go, it’s time is done,” he said.
“We’ve got to normalise talking about the tough stuff.”
