Brooke McIntosh, sister of Kamdyn McIntosh running nearly 15,000km around Australia to raise money for mental health

When Brooke McIntosh said she was going to run a lap of Australia, her older brother – dual premiership Tiger Kamdyn – was gobsmacked. She’s proving him wrong, and for a good cause.

Kamdyn McIntosh thought his sister couldn’t do it.

So like many resilient younger siblings, she did.

Brooke McIntosh, sister of dual Richmond premiership player Kamdyn, is on an incredible mission to run 80km per day for 180 days in support of mental health, with more than 4,000km and the Nullabor ticked off – and Melbourne now marked off the map.

The first time Brooke – who had last year run 1600km in the same pursuit of awareness and fundraising for mental health – floated the idea of running around Australia was around the family dinner table, where Kamdyn and older brother Logan looked at each other over the table in disbelief and wondered whether a bike might be a better option.

Brooke McIntosh is joined by her brother Kamdyn McIntosh on a run in Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

“Credit to her,” Kamdyn said on Tuesday.

“You ask anybody to run a lap around Australia and you’d be thinking ‘oh, really?’, at the start, after they haven’t really done any training before.

“Before Brooke did the 1600km, she really hadn’t competed in any sport or anything and I was thinking it had just come out of the blue somewhere.”

Then Brooke chimes in – “come on, just say it like it is!”.

“You did not believe in me at all,” she exclaimed, in true younger sibling style.

Kamdyn maintains he always knew she could with the family behind her, “because if she was left on her own, it’d be a pretty dark place for her”.

Now more than 4,000km in – having crossed the Nullabor and with some 10,000km still to go and with more than $70,000 raised of her $1.4 million goal – Brooke admits the journey so far has had its moments.

Belief from family was one thing – but she’s had to have it in herself.

“It’s definitely a mindset game,” she said.

“There’s a lot of days where I’m getting comfortable with the 80km, and I started pushing for 100km days and all of a sudden my mind kicks in at the 70km mark saying ‘you can’t do this’. That’s where “I’ve reached out to (my family) and instantly they’re there, sending the words of encouragement to keep pushing. That’s helped me be able to achieve the 100km days that I have.

“You’ve got to believe in yourself before anyone else will, and that’s what I’ve done with this run. I believe in myself and my family is there to pull me up when I need it most. It’s been incredible.”

Hailing from Pinjarra in Western Australia, Brooke – more a strength trainer than a runner – was working fly-in fly-out and survived a 2022 truck accident travelling 100km/h.

Before the accident, she had been contemplating taking her own life.

But as she lay in a hospital bed after the crash, she realised what she had been considering and instead decided to quit her job and ran 1600km from the Pilbara to Perth in support of The Blue Tree Project and 20Talk and raising awareness – particularly for FIFO workers – around mental health.

Brooke McIntosh ran around the Tan in Melbourne on Tuesday as part of her lap of Australia. Picture: David Crosling

The slogan for this run, Just One More, refers to one more step, one more kilometre and one more conversation that could save a life.

Brooke has been approached by countless Australians on the side of the road as she runs, including one man in his 60s who she said had been reluctant to share his story in front of others before driving his caravan on the Nullabor to find her, donate $100 to her cause and share his own suicidal thoughts he had been experiencing after the loss of his wife.

It has moved her in every way possible.

“I make sense of the world when I’m running now, and I get to talk and have just one more conversation whenever I’m doing it,” she said.

“For me, that just keeps me happy.”

The ever-changing landscapes have amazed her, with since starting on March 2 has endured rain, heat, freezing temperatures and obscure physical effects she could not have anticipated.

She met someone pushing a wheelbarrow across the Nullabor, while a Dutch sports therapist lobbed in the middle of nowhere just as her body was screaming for a massage.

“One thing I would never think about was how long I ran on the right side of the road for,” she laughed.

“I ran on the right side of the road for 40 days straight. It put my hip out, my neck out, my knee out, then my right side was getting all blistered. I got realigned and now I’m running half and half on each side of the road. No one thinks of that.”

Kamdyn ran three kilometres with his sister on her way to Yarra Park on Tuesday where she marked the ground with an ‘X’ and her initials to track her path.

He’s got two AFL premierships at Richmond but reckons his sister might just have him covered at the dinner table now.

“Yeah, for distance yeah,” he laughed.

“It’s a big call. There’d be a few Tiger fans that would want me to say no, but we’re very proud.”

Originally published as Brooke McIntosh, sister of Kamdyn McIntosh running nearly 15,000km around Australia to raise money for mental health