Hillary's Ride for Mental Health passes through Pincher Creek

Hillary's Ride participants at the Highway 3/Highway 6 (Pincher Station) junction
C. Davis photo 

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Hillary Rose Werthmann
www.hillarysride.ca

“Love is all you need,” reads the memorial plaque beneath an Amur 
Cherry tree in a park in Edmonton, Canada. The tree was planted for Hillary Rose Werthmann, an affectionate 20-year old who would give hugs just because, and would often tell her family and friends how much she loved them. Yet despite the love around her, Hillary struggled within herself, and on May 8, 2003 she passed away in her living room, after overdosing on pills. ~ www.hillarysride.ca


When Bill Werthmann's daughter Hillary committed suicide by overdose at the age of 20 grief became a constant element of his life.  About 2 and a half years ago he conceived the idea of Hillary's Ride, which couples his compulsion to find a purpose in her death with his own boyhood dream of cycling across Canada.  His primary goal is to help destigmatise mental health.


Bill is a musician who runs the Northern Lights Folk Club with his wife Betty jo in Edmonton and he is also the owner of SPECS Canada, which provides environmentally sound cleaning supplies to the janitorial industry in the Edmonton Area.


Hillary's Ride started in Victoria, BC on May 8, 2013 and has St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador as the final goal after travelling 6,722 km over a 67 day period.  Today, May 18, Hillary's Ride passed through Crowsnest Pass and Pincher Creek.


"Overall people think our main focus is raising money, but for the most part it's about reaching people, and hearing the stories that they've got to tell.  How mental health has affected them, and their families," Bill explained during a respite at Pincher Station.   We've had people come up to us in all walks of life and share their stories.  Sometimes for the first time.  That's the biggest impact that I wanted to feel -  that somebody is coming out of that shell, in terms of sharing their stories."

Bill Werthmann and support driver Al Carlson

"It's been a tough ten years.  A lot of people ask if it gets easier.  Easier is a tough word to use.  It does get easier to handle, I guess.  As a family we didn't start to heal until we started coming out and talking about it, and sharing our story with others."


"If we all had this same feeling from sharing, it had to be a good thing for other people to share."

"That was kind of the impetus, to get people to open up.  It's okay to use the word suicide   It's okay to say that Hillary took her own life.  It's not like she did something bad, it's not like she was wrong.  Not to say what she did was right, either.  It's a really tough one, that one. It's a method of death.  Some people die of cancer.  Some people die of Alzheimer's, some people die in car accidents, some people die of suicide   It's just that simple.  We want people to say it's okay to talk about that, to face it, and admit it, and forget about the stigma.  There should be no stigma attached to it."

Burmis area on Highway 3

"A lot of people think it's not okay to come and talk to us, and that's the other side of it.  we want to put ourselves out there, and say to people:  Yes, come and talk to us.  We're not embarrassed by it, we're not ashamed by it. We were very proud of Hillary, and  who she was as a person."

"She was 20 years old, bright, an honour student, highest marks ever made in several of her courses,  beautiful, funny, caring, generous.  If there is a stereotypical image of somebody that suffered from depression, she was not it.  I guess that's another thing that we want people to get to know Hillary, because she was just an anybody,  just another sweet young girl who had a wonderful, wonderful life going for her."

"She had lots of things going for her, but she suffered from this disease.  That's who she was."

"One of my biggest regrets is with all the people who have gotten involved with this project, I only wish you could have met her.  She was really something."

Leslie Watson

Bill has 3 constant companions for the whole journey. Terry Fannon and Sue Sohlne are both riders and Al Carlson is operating as the support driver. Along the way many other riders join in for part of the journey.

"We're trying to draw attention towards ourselves so we can deflect it in the right way.  This is the best way we know how to do it is this."
Leslie Watson (right) was one of the cyclists participating in Hillary's Ride from Crowsnest Pass to Pincher Creek where she has family, including Don and Joyce Taylor, Aunt Evelyn MacAulay, Uncle Rod "who just died", and Ted and Laurie Watson.

Live satellite tracking shows those interested exactly where the riders are at any time during their journey.  As I write this they appear to be pulling into Fort Macleod after parting with one group of guest riders at Pincher Creek.   Blog updates tell much of the story as it progresses and are well worth checking out (click here for that).

Along the way there have been and will be many benefit concerts associated with the event.  The next one is tomorrow, Sunday May 19 at The Slice in Lethbridge (314 8 Street South Lethbridge, 403-320-0117) with John Wort Hannam, Leeroy Stagger and Dave McCann starting at 7:00 pm.  Bill Werthmann co-wrote the song 'Coal Dust Grin' with Dave McCann.

Hillary As A Number:

• Hillary was 1 of the 3,765 Canadians who died of suicide in 2003.
• In the age bracket 15-24, she was just 1 of the 522 suicides.
• That’s 22.7% of the deaths in the age range 15-24, caused by suicide.
• Suicide is the second most common cause of death, after accidents, for 15-24 year olds in Canada.


The numbers aren’t significantly changing.  We need to break the silence on suicide.~ Source: www.hillarysride.ca and Statistics Canada (Comparison: 463 deaths or 21.5% of 15-24 year-olds died of suicide in Canada in 2008 (most recent figures))

Related links and sources:
Alberta Crisis Centres 
www.hillarysride.ca
Where are they now?
Hillary's Ride For Mental Health on Facebook
www.specscanada.ca
The Slice, Lethbridge