By Mikayla van Loon
A member of the Lilydale RSL sub-branch joined thousands of people in March to walk the length of the Kokoda Trail raising funds for veteran mental health and suicide prevention.
Nita Mcdougall, however, took the March On Challenge even further, completing a total of 406 kilometres over the month.
“I was only going to do 192 kilometres, that’s the Kokoda Trail [up and back]. And then Terry, who’s a member here said ‘Nita, I’ll give you another $50 if you can do another 96km’,” she said.
“So I did [the 192km] really quick, as quick as I could and I said ‘Terry, now I’m stuck at Kokoda. I’ve got to do another 96km’.”
This was the third time Nita had completed the challenge and each year she has increased the distance walked, first starting at 261km and then 300km last year.
Not to mention each time Nita has done the challenge, she’s been able to raise more money for Soldier On, supporting Australian Defence Force personnel and their families through mental health struggles.
Her total raised this year was $2536, adding to the $1.7 million raised throughout the challenge.
Nita’s contribution alone will provide 211 peer support sessions, 126 employment support sessions and 11 psychology sessions to veterans.
Getting involved in March On was first inspired, Nita said, by the late Don Parsons, former president of the RSL.
“He knew how serious suicide in veterans was so after Don passed away and then this came up on my Facebook page, I thought ‘you know what, I’m going to do this and raise money’,” she said.
In her 70s, Nita did question whether she could do the challenge this year, but said a bonus of March On was “it does keep you fit as well”.
As an early riser, Nita would often be up at 5.45am ready to head out for her walk, despite the darkness.
“We live on Switchback Road so by the time I got to Lilydale it was light, so I’d do three or four laps with the Lake or sometimes I’d do the Yarra Valley Trail, sometimes even the Warby Trail.”
Each day the kilometres walked would vary, “sometimes I’d do 15km, one day I did 35km”.
“I’d done four laps around the Lake in the morning and then Noel [her husband] dropped me off in Seville and I walked all the way from Seville back into Lilydale and that was another 20km.”
With nearly 7000 participants taking part, 524,160km were walked by people and teams with various connections to veterans, current ADF members and stories of how mental health and suicide impacted their lives.
Although doing it on her own for the third year was a good experience, Nita said she suggested to the Lilydale RSL that for 2025 they should register a team.
“She’s set the example for next year because she’s inspired us to do something bigger,” Lilydale RSL president Bill Dobson said.
“Because each person who does it gets their own people to donate, that’s the beauty of it. We could be on top of the ladder,” Nita said.
