Annacloy man Donnan Ritchie says losing his cousin to suicide inspired him and nine other men to cycle the length of Ireland for a suicide prevention charity.
Each of the 10 cyclists taking part have lost someone to suicide and so they decided to raise funds for the Downpatrick charity Suicide Down to Zero.
"It's not just a Belfast thing, it's not just a County Down thing, it's an everybody's thing, everyone has been touched by it at some stage," he told Belfast Live.
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The cyclists set out from Mizen Head in County Cork on Easter Monday, finally finishing up at Malin Head in Co Donegal on Thursday, an arduous 400 mile journey.
Donnan said the tough journey on the cycle had given him time to reflect and he had drawn lessons from the experience.
"It's like going up those roads and hills, you've got to see it out and grind it out at times," he said.
"But then you reach the top of the hill and it's easier going down the other side.
"It is tough and I would never take away from people having tough times in their life, but we're trying to say that it won't always be this way and things can get better."
He added that the level of support they had received at the stops along their four day journey showed how strongly people felt about helping.
"It was phenomenal, we stopped two times each day and every shop and place asked us what we were doing it for and were providing tea and food," he said.
"Even when we went out for dinner each night, people would be asking what you were doing and they'd come over and just hand you money.
"They wouldn't be doing that if it didn't mean something huge.
"I'm not an emotional type of person, but finishing the cycle even brought a tear to my eye, I can tell you."
Donnan's brother Peter was the man who came up with the idea to set up the cycle challenge and to do it for Suicide Down to Zero.
He said the experience of losing his cousin by suicide in August 2020 had made him more determined to find ways to help those struggling.
"My thoughts were that if I'd just known a bit more about, that I could have helped the man, it was such a tragic waste," Peter said.
"I talked to him a few days before he died and I thought he sounded fine, I guess it's typical for some men in that we don't talk about that sort of thing.
"But there's help out there for people and the charity is running a few courses in May to help people know how to talk about that sort of thing, so I'll be doing them."
Pat McGreevy is the chairperson with the charity Suicide Down to Zero which Peter and his nine companions were cycling for.
He has over 40 years of experience working in mental health care positions and extensive experience specifically in suicide prevention.
"We were started eight years ago, we believe at that stage there were over 300 suicides in Northern Ireland," he said.
"Since then we've adapted the sort of motto or mantra that zero is the only acceptable goal for suicide prevention.
"It's those three broad headings, prevention, intervention with people who may have thoughts of suicide and providing aftercare to those injured or affected."
Pat has said every penny raised for the charity goes straight into it, as it is purely voluntary.
He said they set out with the goal of informing key decision makers around health provision of the issues, but the charity has instead adapted to become a more local service that people can come directly to.
"I suppose one of the things that we would emphasise is that suicide and mental illness are related, but they're not synonymous," he said.
"We firmly believe that people can come to think about suicide for a host of reasons and many of them unrelated to mental illness - relationship breakdowns, debt worries, shame, guilt, feelings of letting other people down or sometimes a combination of these or other factors.
"You hear suicide and mental health in the same sentence and we think we have a job to do to separate that out a bit better."
The cyclists set out with the goal of raising £10,000 for the charity but have raised in excess of £12,000 in their endeavours.
Donnan said the one thing the cyclists had taken from the journey was that it was better to talk about the issue openly with those around them.
"It probably feels like a difficult thing to ask someone but sometimes you do just have to ask the question - how are you feeling?," he said.
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