After almost 5,000 miles, countless sofa surfs and presumably more than a lifetime's worth of saddle sore, one Epsom man's epic journey is almost over.
Lewis Stephens, who lived in Banstead before going to school in Epsom and Ewell, has been cycling Britain's coastline since June 2.
Under the tagline The Tourist Dog, 23-year-old Lewis committed himself to this epic feat to raise funds and awareness for men's mental health — in particular CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably.
LOADS OF SUPPORT IN #EASTBOURNE - FOUND A BED - DRINKING TEA
— TheTouristDog (@thetouristdog) October 6, 2019
Overwhelming effort from everyone.. Offers everywhere and ended up at Natalie's house.
A very CALM post for a very CALM day for TTD with the weather adding to the mood. Sunshine and a cool 100 MPH headwind! #CycleOn pic.twitter.com/6FrlOTH4GG
The former Epsom man has raised almost £3,000 for CALM, who run a suicide prevention hotline, since beginning the journey.
On Thursday (October 10) he is due to finish at Selsey, Chichester, where his Grandfather once lived.
The place and time — October 10 is World Mental Health Day — could not be more appropriate after journeying through some of the UK's wildest and most remote places.
"Wales was great, coming up towards St Davids we had glorious weather and cycling around the cliffs was my first real 'wow' moment in the British landscape.
"The best part in general has been doing the money challenges and the kindness and help of everybody has been really eye opening and taught me a lot," Lewis told the Comet.
Earlier I arrived in #Wivenhoe to catch the ferry
— TheTouristDog (@thetouristdog) September 30, 2019
Went in to the pub and asked the lady behind the bar and she said she didnt know
It was going to be a 10-15 mile cycle around to a point 100 metres across the river.. Surely not.
I was disheartened..#mentalhealth pic.twitter.com/wlmJB7v8Oo
One aspect of Lewis's incredible adventure apart from the fact that he is travelling so far under his own steam is the challenge's relationship (or lack of one) with money.
Eager to reach out to the communities he travelled through, The Tourist Dog set tight daily budgets, sometimes as low as £5 or even £1, for most of the trip.
That meant meeting people who might be sympathetic to the cause became a daily occurrence, though happily not a very difficult one for the most part.
"I think I spent 15 days in a row just staying at other people's houses. After we arrived at a place and hit up social media we just waited to see who could help and someone always came through at the last minute.
"It's a unique way of travelling and I think a really good think to promote because these days travel is becoming monopolised, people are buying packaged travel deals but ways like this it's like a community exchange," Lewis said.
"Straight away, the barriers of small talk and things like that fall away and people want to have a real conversation and make a connection.
"For a lot of people it's at the forefront of their minds and everywhere you go around the country everybody seems to know about it.
"It seems like the best way to deal with these issues is at the community level because people know each other and have those closer relationships," he added.
Soon to be arriving back in Epsom, Lewis seems to have little intention of slowing down, even if the bicycle might get parked for a while.
After all there is more than one way to amplify the discussion about mental health.
"I'm hoping to start a podcast and getting local people to talk about themselves and their history and show that there's no such thing as normal," he said.
To donate to The Tourist Dog and CALM, go to Lewis's Just Giving Page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/thetouristdog
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