Running a marathon is hard work, but not as hard as living with depression and suffering from mental-health issues.

Andrew Thorpe always played sport growing up, mostly Aussie rules, but he found going for a run and pounding the pavement gave him a release like nothing else.

He was part of the 2020 intake for the Indigenous Marathon Program (IMP) where he stepped up the kilometres and the passion for long-distance grew. The COVID pandemic may have ended the dreams of the 2020 squad running in the New York City Marathon, but the experience helped Thorpe.

“I didn’t realise that was going to happen at first but the feeling I got after runs, although I was tired, but mentally I felt amazing,” he said.

“I got hooked, and that’s when I thought more about the IMP and I applied for it and wanted to change my life…