# Lift The Load Appeal

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 9 Oct 2026, 5:38.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/29cf89cf-7509-4561-8f43-b4de0027d78a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Today Justin is taking on a gruelling 50km walk carrying a 10kg vest to raise $50,000 for Top Blokes, a mentoring program helping young men build resilience, develop healthy relationships and learn to ask for help. After losing his nephew Logan to suicide, this mission is deeply personal. We need just 600 more people to donate $50 each to reach this target. Can you help lift the load? Donate here! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: G'day everyone, an unscheduled podcast because I wanted to just
[0:09] Speaker 1: drop into your feed and ask for your help. I
[0:11] Speaker 1: hate to start on a negative and I don't want
[0:14] Speaker 1: to lead with something horrible. It goes against all the
[0:17] Speaker 1: rules of PR and fundraising, but I have to be
[0:21] Speaker 1: honest and I hinted at this yesterday in our I'll
[0:24] Speaker 1: Do Better Tomorrow podcast. This past week may have been
[0:26] Speaker 1: the most depressing week that I can recall in terms
[0:28] Speaker 1: of news stories highlighting boys and men. It started with
[0:33] Speaker 1: the atrocious, almost unspeakable story about men, fully grown men
[0:39] Speaker 1: at Cornell University who are alleged to have sexually assaulted
[0:42] Speaker 1: a woman in their fraternity building in ways that I
[0:45] Speaker 1: just cannot and will not pollute your mind with in
[0:48] Speaker 1: this podcast. But if you've seen the story, you know
[0:52] Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Then we heard about Sam Wood.
[0:54] Speaker 1: These allegations of domestic assault are now being defended in
[0:57] Speaker 1: the courts, so I can't say much about it. I've
[1:00] Speaker 1: spoken with Sam on his podcast a couple of times,
[1:02] Speaker 1: and I'm just reeling over this story. And my heart
[1:07] Speaker 1: is breaking for the families of two boys on the
[1:09] Speaker 1: Gold Coast, Kaya Kennedy, age 12, Trayvon Bradshaw, age 13,
[1:14] Speaker 1: who both took their lives this past weekend. The most
[1:16] Speaker 1: awful of circumstances. I don't know how to say this
[1:19] Speaker 1: any louder and any clearer. Boys and men are struggling.
[1:25] Speaker 1: They're hurting girls, they're hurting each other, and they're hurting themselves.
[1:31] Speaker 1: And they need help. They need mentors. They need direction.
[1:35] Speaker 1: They need more men to stand up and show them
[1:38] Speaker 1: that healthy masculinity is where a man helps the people
[1:41] Speaker 1: around him to feel safer and stronger. I've written a
[1:44] Speaker 1: whole book about it, but that's not what this quick
[1:47] Speaker 1: podcast drops about. It's actually about asking you for your help. Today, Saturday,
[1:52] Speaker 1: October 10, I'm doing something that feels impossibly hard while
[1:56] Speaker 1: I raise funds for a mentoring program called Top Blokes.
[2:00] Speaker 1: In fact, while you're listening to this, I'm probably in
[2:02] Speaker 1: some form of pain doing this really hard thing. I'm
[2:06] Speaker 1: walking 50 kilometers around the New South Wales Central Coast
[2:09] Speaker 1: in an attempt to raise $ 50, 000 for Top Blokes. And
[2:13] Speaker 1: I'll be carrying a 10 kilo vest for the entire distance.
[2:17] Speaker 1: So the maths on this thing's really simple. A thousand
[2:19] Speaker 1: people throw in $ 50 each and we achieve the target.
[2:22] Speaker 1: At the time that I'm recording this podcast, I'm recording
[2:25] Speaker 1: it on Friday, we've hit $ 17, 000, which means that just
[2:30] Speaker 1: over $ 30, 000 and we're there. That means I need another
[2:34] Speaker 1: 600 people to chip in. And based on the thousands
[2:37] Speaker 1: and thousands of people who listen to this podcast, I
[2:40] Speaker 1: just need 600 people to throw $ 50 in And we're there.
[2:44] Speaker 1: I reckon we can do it. $ 50, 000 for 50K. It's
[2:48] Speaker 1: 50K for 50K. Will you please donate? And if you
[2:51] Speaker 1: can manage more than $ 50, that would really help because
[2:54] Speaker 1: there are some people who can't manage it. If you
[2:55] Speaker 1: can only make 20, then that would be incredible. But
[2:57] Speaker 1: if you've got 500 or 1,000, every dollar makes such
[3:02] Speaker 1: a difference. I wanted to quickly tell you how Top
[3:03] Speaker 1: Blokes helps young men, and then I'll wrap this up.
[3:06] Speaker 1: Mentors teach and guide at-risk boys to build resilience and
[3:10] Speaker 1: emotional well-being, to develop healthy relationships and to learn how
[3:13] Speaker 1: to ask for help and support. And the research shows
[3:17] Speaker 1: that 78% of boys who complete a Top Blokes program
[3:21] Speaker 1: report improvements in confidence, resilience, emotional well-being and willingness to
[3:25] Speaker 1: seek help. There was an independent economic analysis by EY,
[3:29] Speaker 1: Ernst & Young, that found that the Top Blokes Foundation
[3:32] Speaker 1: generates up to $ 4. 15 in social value for every dollar
[3:37] Speaker 1: that's invested in its mentoring programs for young men. That's
[3:41] Speaker 1: a phenomenal return on investment. What it means is that
[3:45] Speaker 1: this program works. That's an independent analysis that showed that
[3:50] Speaker 1: across all of their programs delivered between 2022 and 2025,
[3:52] Speaker 1: a $ 5. 5 million investment generated an estimated $ 19. 2 million in
[3:55] Speaker 1: broader social value. So let's up the value. Let's help them. Today,
[4:08] Speaker 1: I promise you I'm going to be in a lot
[4:09] Speaker 1: of pain. I don't even know if I can do
[4:10] Speaker 1: this thing. It's so big and it's so hard. My
[4:15] Speaker 1: body has not been happy with me during training. My
[4:17] Speaker 1: longest walk so far with the weight has been 21
[4:19] Speaker 1: kilometers and I didn't respond well. I have no idea
[4:23] Speaker 1: how I'm going to complete the 50Ks. But this is
[4:26] Speaker 1: really personal for me. You know about my nephew, Logan.
[4:30] Speaker 1: Three years ago, he passed away. He took his life
[4:32] Speaker 1: because he didn't know how to ask for help. And
[4:35] Speaker 1: He didn't have the resilience and the ability to work
[4:37] Speaker 1: through the trials that he was facing. And as a man,
[4:41] Speaker 1: I'm tired of seeing the awful behavior and the scattered
[4:45] Speaker 1: trail of broken and hurt lives that the news serves
[4:49] Speaker 1: up to us every day as a result of boys
[4:51] Speaker 1: and men who can't communicate, who won't seek help, and
[4:54] Speaker 1: choose to hurt other people and themselves. And this is
[4:58] Speaker 1: what I'm doing about it. I'm investing in long-term mentoring
[5:00] Speaker 1: to help boys do better and to learn how to
[5:02] Speaker 1: help the people around them to feel safer and stronger.
[5:06] Speaker 1: Because helping boys helps everyone. Our girls are safer and
[5:11] Speaker 1: stronger when our boys are. So that's my message. That's
[5:15] Speaker 1: my plea. Please donate. It helps. The link's in the
[5:19] Speaker 1: show notes. Please help me lift the load as I'm
[5:22] Speaker 1: trying to help top blokes lift the load for our
[5:25] Speaker 1: young men. Really appreciate your support. Thanks for listening to this.
[5:29] Speaker 1: Wish me luck. This one is going to hurt. Have
[5:32] Speaker 1: a great weekend.

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