Musselburgh man completes 3,000km cycle to Spain in memory of mum and sister
Tommy said the memory of his mum and sister helped him keep going during the toughest legs of the 40-day challenge
A man from Musselburgh who completed a 3,000-kilometre bike ride from Scotland to Spain in memory of his mum and sister has said he now wants to use cycling to help others struggling with their mental health.
Tommy Hastie decided to take on the gruelling endurance challenge after his “bubbly and outgoing” sister Kirsten took her own life earlier this year.
Her death came just a few years after his mum died of terminal brain cancer, which the 34-year-old said “broke the family to pieces”.
In the 40 days it took Tommy to reach Benidorm, where his mum used to have a caravan and the family have spent a lot of time, he cycled up to 55 miles a day and battled scorching temperatures of more than 35 degrees.
“It got really challenging when I crossed the border from France into Spain,” said Tommy. “I was exhausted. I wasn’t eating as much and I definitely started to lose weight.
“The last four days were a total drag. They felt like what the previous 30-odd days combined had felt like.
“Mentally it was so tough and there was a few times it would have been so easy to jump on a train and give up.”
But he said the memory of his sister and mum, and the support he was receiving from people back home, helped him to pull through and carry on.
Tommy continued: “A lot of the times when I was feeling a bit down I was thinking about the reasons I was doing it and how far I’d come. I told myself I’m not going to quit now.”
He said when he finally finished, the feeling was “overwhelming”. “A few family members came out to see me but I was so exhausted and relieved to have finished it took a few days for what I had achieved to sink in,” he said.
“It was emotional to finish where my mum had her caravan, because she should have been there with us.”
In total, Tommy raised more than £10,000 for the charities he was fundraising for - including the men’s mental health charity Andy’s Man Club.
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Now he’s back in Scotland, Tommy is already looking for another challenge, and has been inspired to try to help others struggling with grief and their mental health.
“It’s been tough coming back and trying to get into a routine again,” he said. “But I’ve been thinking up plans for what I want to do next.
“I want to do another ride to raise some money to start a charity called Miles That Matter, which would be a cycling group aimed at getting people out the house and on to a bike.
“Eventually I’d like to get some bikes together for people who can’t afford one, and to have different group cycles for different ages.
“The cycle gave me a sense of purpose and really helped me when I was in a bad place, so I want to share the thing that helped me with other people too.”