‘Mates look after mates’: Footy star supporting mental health off the field

After spending his life helping people with their fitness, one local footy figure has turned towards an initiative to support others with their mental health.

Mental health charity Talk2mebro has expanded into the Central Coast. Picture: supplied

As someone who has spent all his life around rugby league, Todd Lewis is used to rubbing shoulders with some pretty tough characters.

And while the Wyong Roos playmaker, who also works at the Active Fitness gym at Doyalson, has spent years helping others improve their physical fitness, he has turned his attention to an initiative designed to support people with their mental health.

Formed in 2018, Talk2mebro is a charity that focuses on breaking down the stigma associated with talking about suicide and mental health issues, with the group’s early intervention approach aimed at getting people to open up about their challenges regularly.

“Mental health doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t matter who you are. I think a big thing is breaking the stigma, especially in that culture,” said Lewis.

“In footy, mates look after each other on the field, and while we try to do the same off the field, Talk2mebro is trying to encourage that culture of just checking in with your mates and making those mental health conversations normal.”

Todd Lewis in action for Wyong. Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro

After initially going to a ‘Guys catch-up’ in Newcastle last year to see what it was all about, Lewis has been instrumental in helping Talk2mebro expand to the Central Coast, with the charity running a string of free community events at his gym at Doyalson.

“It starts with a bit of breath work, which I thought was a bit ‘woo woo’ at the start, I’d never done it before, and then they jump in the ice baths,” he said.

“But the biggest thing after it is that they have a coffee and a connection with everyone there. When we went there for the first time, to see 60 or 70 random blokes just walk down to the beach was a bit of an eye-opener.

“None of these blokes knew each other, they just put a towel down on the beach and listened to what it is all about, and from that I thought, ‘This is pretty cool, how can we get this down on the Central Coast?’ We’ve got all these support lines when things get too late but what is there to be preventative to make sure that we can help people?

“For me, in my personal life, everyone goes through their struggles. I’ve had mates go through it, I’ve also had suicide in my life, so I think it’s something in our community that people would love.”

After reaching out to those involved with the charity, Lewis went about bringing the free community catch-ups closer to home.

“I thought that it aligns massively with what we do: people come in every day and work on their physical health but what are they doing for their mental health?

“I asked if they’d be able to do a workshop down here and one thing led to another. The next month they did a workshop down at the gym, we had about 30 people and got some awesome feedback,” he said.

“We started at 30, went to 60 and the last one we ran had about 120 people, so there’s definitely a desire for it here.”

Talk2mebro morning catch-ups have proven to be popular. Picture: supplied

And despite the name, Lewis insists the events aren’t just for blokes.

“Obviously it’s called Talk2mebro, but women need this type of support too and over the past 12 to 18 months they’ve been rolling out mixed and female workshops too,” said Lewis.

Following the successful rollout of these community events, Talk2mebro is set to host its first Central Coast gala, to be held at the Wyong Leagues Club on Saturday February 8.

The event will look to raise money to help the charity continue to run and expand its programs.

The ticketed gala offers guests a three-course meal, drinks packages, entertainment as well as a series of auctions and prizes. Central Coast Council mayor Lawrie McKinna will be among the speakers, along with Tommy Cash, of Wedding Chats fame.

Tickets and more information can be found on this link.