Gravity Espresso & RideWest Sponsorship

Gravity Espresso, for the second year now, are proud to be an official Silver Sponsor of the epic ‘RideWest’ charity bike ride taking place in 2024 between the 19th and 26th of April. 

RideWest, which has now been running since 2010, is all about making a positive difference to the mental health of regional Queenslanders, by raising funds and awareness. 

The ride takes place across 8 days, from Brisbane to Longreach, and covers an astounding 1311 kms! This means about 6-8 hours riding each day. 

The ride helps to raise much needed funds for the Queensland Royal Flying Doctor Service, so that they can continue to deliver and expand upon their Mental Health support programs in outback Queensland.

Making use of funds raised by RideWest, the Royal Flying Doctor Service have been able to establish their ‘Wellbeing Out West’ program, which provides free mental health education, one-on-one counselling and tailored support to people living and working in remote and rural parts of Queensland. 

The Wellbeing Out West program also delivers the following services to remote and rural Australians:

• Training of front line and local staff in mental health first aid, and suicide prevention.

• Responding to and providing mental health education and support following traumatic events.

• Mini Field-Day programs in rural and remote areas. These programs provide the opportunity to connect with the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service mental health clinicians, to learn more about looking after emotional health and wellbeing and to brush up on first aid skills.

• Management of requests for assistance from remote stations.

• Providing clinicians to speak at various community events, aiming to increase understanding of mental health conditions.

1 in 5 Aussies will experience mental health issues this year alone, and over 50% of us will experience mental health issues during the course of our lifetimes. Farmers and those in rural areas are sadly among the most at risk of suicide, which makes RideWest and the Wellbeing Out West program such an important and worthy cause to support.

In the last 10 years the charity ride has raised over $1,965,000 for the Royal Flying Doctors and their Wellbeing Out West program. This is a tremendous effort, something we’re honoured to be a part of and something we hope to see continue to grow with each successive event.