BURT Kennedy is a man on a mission.
There will be no rest and no sleep for the Maitland man as he runs 276 kilometres non-stop from Newcastle to Sydney this month.
All in the name of getting people talking about the "black dog".
Mr Kennedy aims to conquer The Great North Walk within 45 hours.
He sets out on July 31.
"I am doing it to raise awareness of depression on behalf of the Black Dog Institute because of my own personal experiences with depression," he said.
"And at the moment, I think it's pretty relevant for a lot of people with everything that is going on."
Mr Kennedy was originally planning to do 100 "repeats" of the ANZAC Walk in Newcastle in March - but postponed the event due to the pandemic.
"That would have been 200 kilometres, and the point of that one was to try to get community involvement," he said. "But especially now with the outbreak in Victoria, we don't want to be irresponsible. I decided to do a one-way run this time instead. Hopefully it will at least get a bit of discussion going."
Mr Kennedy said he had long battled depression, but it took him a long time to speak up.
"I didn't recognise it at the start. And when I did... at the time I instructed two lots of martial arts - and when you have people looking up to you in different ways... you feel like if you fall down, they'll fall too. I think a lot of men, in particular, feel like they are carrying the weight of other people when they are seen as that 'strong' figure.
"You can only carry a weight for so long before it will wear you down.
"I didn't say anything for a long time, but I got to a point where I had to say something, because I was heading down a pretty dark road. But the moment you talk about it and you realise you have support... It is still your own battle, but when you have people in your corner it makes the whole thing so much easier. That's why I'm trying to get people talking."
Support the cause via teamblackdog.org.au/fundraisers/BurtyBurt.
