Righto, Tony Pearce is back. And yep, he’s still head down, tail up, doing wildly wholesome and mildly unhinged things in the name of mental health.

We rewound to Tony’s Trek in 2023, when he looked at the brutal reality of mental injury and suicide risk in emergency services and basically went, nah, we can’t just keep talking about this and doing nothing. So he walked 1500km through fire-affected parts of northeast and east Victoria and raised serious money for early intervention wellbeing programs. The kind that step in early, before someone’s “clinically diagnosed” and completely cooked.

Then came Everest Base Camp in 2024. Casual. And now in 2026 he’s cranking the dial again, paddling 2400km down the Murray over 50 days. That’s 45 to 50km a day, about seven hours on the water, every day, to raise awareness and another 50k for more residential wellbeing programs.

What I loved most was the honesty. No platitudes, no tidy endings. Just real talk about emergency service workers, mental health, and how much still slips through the cracks. Tony doesn’t sugarcoat it. Sometimes people don’t make it, even with love, purpose, and community around them. And that’s hard to sit with. But it’s exactly why early intervention matters, and why these conversations matter.

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TONY PEARCE

Website: facebook.com

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com