Jill Burdett talks to the woman cycling 312km who didn’t even have a bike until April
“I was 19 when my Dad took his own life. I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer the never-ending grief and regret.”
Tess Borcsok, now 44, lives with the pain of her father’s loss every day and is putting herself through her own mental and physical challenge to raise money for The Baton of Hope UK, a charity not only raising awareness of suicide prevention, but improving access to information and support services.
The charity was co-founded and now headed by former BBC and Sky News journalist Mike McCarthy, who lost his 31-year-old son Ross to suicide in 2021.
My first lesson in front crawl was in February this year and it was a lot of dry swimming at home on the sofa and on the pouffe
Tess, who is originally from Hungary but now lives in Bury said: “Around 6,000 lives are lost to suicide in the UK each year. It does not discriminate, it can affect any family in any area and we have to try and do something to change the awful statistics.
“My Dad was a farmer and worked day and night so very hard to provide us with a good quality of life. He was such a helpful character but would never ask for help himself, so proud.
“His life was his work and work was his life which later became the demise of him because when he stopped work and stayed at home his spark for life died.
“I was only 19 and didn’t see the warning signs. He was put on medication and we thought all this behaviour was a side effect of that. We thought he just needed time to find his purpose again without the relentless work routine that he was used to.
“We never ever thought that he was planning to leave us forever.”
From this Friday 26 July Tess will be completing the Mental – K312 challenge. Over twenty-four hours she will do a 312Kg total lift (squat, bench, deadlift) then 3.12 km in the pool followed by a 312km outside bike ride. Everything involving the digits 3, 1, 2.
Tess explained: “312 is the distance in kilometres between my home town of Derecske and Szekesfehervar – a city that my Dad always wanted to visit – so I will take him there three times in twenty-four hours.”
Tess works as a nutritionist, sports therapist and coach but had never been on a bike till this year and has needed intensive coaching for the swimming.
She said: "My first lesson in front crawl was in February this year and it was a lot of dry swimming at home on the sofa and on the pouffe. I didn’t even have a bike till April but I have been putting in the miles encouraged and supported by some amazing people.”
The weight lifting and swimming will take place at Total Fitness in Whitefield followed by the mammoth through the night round around Greater Manchester ending around 8am at Media City on Saturday morning.
She is aiming to raise £31,200 and if you want to support her and the work of The Baton of Hope you can do so here.
Mike McCarthy will be at Media City on Saturday morning with the Baton of Hope if you want to join and cheer her home.
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