How running helps these mates start tough conversations in regional towns

In the early morning, a lone figure cuts across the footy oval in Kojonup, in Western Australia.

Mike Rolls, a double amputee who has travelled thousands of kilometres across Australia, is joined by a crowd of farmers who have traded their workboots for sneakers.

They huddle under the oval’s lights waiting for his friend Ben Pettingill to arrive.

It’s an unusual start to the day for the farmers, 260 kilometres south of Perth, as the early hours are usually reserved for making the rounds and checking livestock.

Mr Pettingill, who is 98 per cent blind, and Mr Rolls call themselves “Legless and Blind” and travel the country with their organisation Real Life Resilience to raise awareness for mental health by doing talks in rural and regional communities.

While in Kojonup, Mr Pettingill took the opportunity to add to his goal of running 3,249km, one kilometre for each life lost to suicide in 2022. 

The 29-year-old knows what it is like to struggle with depression after losing his vision due to a rare genetic condition almost overnight as a 16-year-old. 

The condition, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), affects one in a million people.

“I remember waking up in hospital, and not being able to see anything that was there the night before. It was all gone,” Mr Pettingill said.

“I was told I was going to be blind for life,” he said.

“Mum and Dad burst into tears, but that was the moment I decided I was going to put on a brave face for them.

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He suffered in silence for years, until a conversation with his father helped him come to terms with his depression. 

“My old man sat me down and asked me, ‘How are you going?’ That is when I burst into tears,” he said.

“I told Dad how much I hated my life.”

Running removes stigma 

It was the catalyst that spurred Mr Pettingill into action, and he enlisted his friend Mike Rolls, who lost his legs to meningococcal disease, for support.

The pair set up Legless and Blind in 2017.

Recently, Mr Pettingill set himself his ambitious running goal.

Through running, he has found a way to take the stigma out of a difficult conversation.

“While I’m running, I need someone next to me at all times, so that’s when those conversations start to happen, people open up.”

Mr Pettingill admits he is a little bit behind on his running goal due to injury, clocking up more than 1,100km so far this year.

He is aiming to have 9km, one kilometre for the average number of people who lose their lives to suicide each day in Australia, left on December 31, and then will complete his mission.

Learning to face uncertainty

Alan Anderson has lived in Kojonup for 88 years.

The octogenarian walked three laps with the mental health advocates, who grew up in Victoria, last month where he discussed the uncertainty facing the agricultural industry, impacted by the looming ban on live sheep export.

“We’ve got some short-term problems with supply and demand with sheep,” Mr Anderson said.

“Ben and Mike are going to show us different management attitudes.”