Decorated military veteran Ryan McCready has revealed he has lost more friends and colleagues to suicide than those killed in action in his 18-year army career.
Having turned to politics in his civilian life, Ryan is now a UUP councillor in Derry City and Strabane Council and was appointed the 'veterans champion' for the area at the recent Annual General Meeting.
On Friday night, he is taking on a marathon-like overnight gym challenge to raise money and awareness for a local charity helping veterans in the North West area.
Read more: Northern Ireland mental health crisis set to get worse, Audit Office report warns
Mr McCready had a long and highly decorated military career spanning multiple conflict zones and, at the age of 26 in 2011, he was honoured as the UK's Most Outstanding Soldier with an award from Prince William at the Imperial War Museum.
But he revealed, in an interview with Belfast Live ahead of his gym challenge - dubbed Zero Dark Thirty because it takes place overnight - that he has lost more friends and colleagues to suicide than those killed in action.
"Since my service, I've had more friends and colleagues who died by suicide than were killed in action during my 18 year military career," he said. That's stark."
Mr McCready believes there is a "barrier" to mental health care for veterans that is linked to the legacy of the Troubles.
"Because of the nature of the post-conflict society here in Northern Ireland, where even people who did not serve in Northern Ireland but who have post-traumatic stress from Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, there is a barrier in access to mental healthcare for veterans because of the connotations from historical and legacy issues," he said.
"I take that personally and I'm trying to do something about it."
His gym challenge is in aid of Andy Allen's Veterans Support charity, which oversees the work of the 'Veterans Hub' in Derry.
The hub was established, Ryan explained, prior to the coronavirus pandemic in order to give veterans a place to "unwind" and access services such as mental health support.
"Veterans throughout the north west formed a group called the Veterans Hub and it's a place for veterans to unwind, get access to mental health services and to start ideas, maybe start a business, or anything to help them if they are ever in need," he said.
"So, we were awarded £35,000 by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust fund to set up a veterans' gymnasium and that finished up around a year ago. So we've now got a veterans gym where they can come with their immediate families.
"The reason why is that we done some research and found that veterans wouldn't go into a civilian gym because many of them have tattoos of a military nature, or they just didn't feel comfortable for other reasons.
"It's linked with a wider project, and we've been working on the actual veterans' hub to expand it so we can host services - mostly mental health and financial services, and a few other things.
"So that's why I'm raising money - to help with the expansion of that."
For his challenge, the former soldier - who was described as the “leading light” behind the development of counter-drone procedures in Afghanistan by four-star US General John Nicholson in 2017 as he was awarded Nato’s meritorious service medal - is set to exercise for over six hours straight through the night.
"It's from around 11 o'clock until first light, which is around a quarter-to-five so, as we used to call it, the zero-dark hours," he said.
"So it's wee bit of military slang in there that people might pick up on."
He added: "I was appointed veterans' champion for Derry City and Strabane District Council at the AGM, and it got me thinking I wanted to do more than just represent and speak for veterans. I wanted to have an action and an output. By doing this event overnight, it's at the same level of a marathon - you can't stop over several hours. It involves the bicycle, rowing machine, cross trainer, push-ups, sit-ups, free weights - it's going to be a heavy session."
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