36 INSIDE Harcourts Harcourts is immensely proud of its sponsorship of ‘Lachy’s Long Way Home’, an audacious and inspiring campaign by determined athlete Lachy Cameron, who recently ran from Brisbane to Sydney, breaking the fastest known time record in the process. In a feat of extraordinary courage and determination, Lachy covered this daunting distance of 925km in 10 days, seven hours, 56 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the previous record set in 2016 by a whole day. In doing so, Lachy promoted the message that vulnerability is a show of strength, and that mental health is a battle worth fighting for. “I want to help show a way forward through the darkness,” Lachy shares. “Running is a big part of my holistic approach to mental health, so I wanted to incorporate that into my mission to help others. I’ve partnered with Heart On My Sleeve (HOMS) because of their belief that showing vulnerability is brave.” “It’s incredibly strong to admit you’re not ok, and then to actually do something about it takes a lot of courage.” Joining Lachy’s record-breaking run for mental health awareness was his mum and Harcourts NSW CEO Katrina Tarrant. “This all came about because six years ago, he had an attempt on his own life, which came completely out of the blue for us as parents,” explains Katrina. Lachy took up running during Covid and in four short years he has trained himself to become an elite athlete, as well as working full-time and completely turning his life around. “He wanted to get out there every day to pound that pavement and suffer in public, so people know they don’t have to suffer in silence,” Katrina says. Katrina herself only took up running in January, but she’s already helped her son raise $33,000. “I took up running at the beginning of this year, so I was able to support him on this adventure and run stints with him to lift his spirits and ensure he didn’t feel alone.” As well as that support, Harcourts sponsored a support crew van for the run, there was tremendous support from Katrina’s offices and friends, family and even complete strangers donated money. “All the way down the coast, because I have Harcourts offices, I had people turning up at 7pm at night on dark, cold freeways, clapping him as he was coming into his stops, cheering him on and waving the Harcourts’ clappers.” “Then there were people, because we had support crew t-shirts on, stopping us and saying, ‘What are you guys doing this for?’ And then they’d tell their own stories… and give us money,” she said. As well as being there for her son, Katrina said Lachy’s journey had opened the door to having conversations about mental health, and not suffering in silence, with numerous people in her life. “Mental health is such a challenge for our industry, and Lachy’s run has given me the opportunity to engage in so many important conversations with my real estate family,” she said. “My Harcourts offices were amazing standing on the side of dark cold freeways cheering him on and even running with him. “The real estate community rallied to get him home.” Katrina notes there were also plenty of lessons that can be applied to various areas of life, including real estate. “There were so many parallels to real estate in terms of, ‘How do you go from good to great, great to exceptional and exceptional to smashing a record of a legitimate athlete,” she says, “and all the while keep mentally healthy?” “My hope for the run was simple,” continues Lachy. “I want to show people the power of believing in yourself and that we are all worthy of the love we sometimes deny ourselves.” IN FEATURE LACHY’S LONG WAY HOME
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