The road to mental health for Bridgit’s Ryan Martin has been a long one. A year ago he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and for several years before that he battled depression and anxiety.
On May 14 Martin will dip his toes in the Pacific Ocean near Tofino, B.C., climb aboard his bicycle and begin a long, daunting journey of a different kind, a 7,387-kilometre trek across Canada to St. John’s, Nfld., all in the name of raising money and awareness for mental health – particularly workplace mental health.
“It’s time to give back,” says Martin, 23.
A Laurier University business grad from Guelph, Martin has worked at Bridgit as a business development and sales rep for a little more than year. The company, which makes a construction management software platform, has not only backstopped his ride, donating the touring bicycle he will use for his journey, but has steadfastly supported him at work as he has grappled with his mental health issues.
“Ever since [Ryan] joined Bridgit, we’ve been able to have a very open conversation with him about his mental health,” says Mallorie Brodie, Bridgit CEO and co-founder.
“And although I can only imagine how challenging and nerve wracking that likely was to bring up with an employer, it has allowed everyone to have a very open conversation about it, which means as a company we can be that much more flexible and helpful throughout this process with him.
“And I think there is still a stigma around it. People are worried to talk about it.
“But I think this was just such an example about how an open conversation happens and how that was really helpful to both groups involved.”
Broadcasting that message is precisely the reason Martin has decided to embark on his ride.
“People need to know they’re not alone,” says Martin.
(Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
He says that from the moment he first approached his supervisor about his health issues, Bridgit’s CRO, Sean Erjavec, he has received unwavering support from his company. The same held true when he recently announced he would leave the company to embark on his ride.
“Mallorie was like, ‘What can we do to support you?’” he says.
“I talked to my entire sales team, and they were unbelievably supportive again. It was a great feeling.
“The positive feedback has been incredible.”
Martin has been training three to four days a week on a stationary bicycle through the cold, wet, spring, and will shortly transition to road work.
Once the ride begins, Martin says he’s planning on covering 120 km to 200 km per day, depending on weather and terrain, and will stop at Canadian Mental Health Association branches along the route in major cities.
“He has been such an amazing team member,” says Brodie. “He’s the nicest person, he’s incredibly hard-working. Around the office he has such a smile on his face.
“For us it was one of those things that goes to show that mental health is an extremely challenging thing and if there’s anything we can do to support such an important team member, we wanted to be there alongside him .
“We’re obviously going to miss him greatly while he’s on his ride, but we’ll be following along on social media and supporting him that way.”
Speaking of which, Martin has a launched a website for his cross-Canada quest, populated with stories, podcasts and social media links.
“I’m going to go through [tough] times [on the ride],” he says, “but there’s so much motivation and value, I need to do this, to help myself and other people.”
