Rucksack challenge highlights ‘burdens’ carried by men in Gibraltar

The hidden struggles that many men in Gibraltar face were brought into focus during a 24-hour “rucksack challenge” organised by Jamie Burnett from Lottoland in aid of Men in Need Gibraltar.

The event, held outside Leisure Island Business Centre in Ocean Village, invited participants to carry a heavy rucksack for at least an hour as a symbol of the emotional and practical burdens that fathers, sons and brothers often shoulder in silence on the Rock.

Mr Burnett explained the personal experience that had driven him to organise the challenge.

“Me myself, I've been through quite a troublesome couple of years... I've been quite lucky to work with Lottoland and they've been very good with support,” he said.

Previously he worked on a building site and found that moving to a company like Lottoland was “a different world completely.”

“I got the opportunity here [to have support] and I've appreciated the opportunity,” Mr Burnett added.
“And now I want to tell other people and spread the word.”

He said some men remained reluctant to talk about their mental health or reach out for help.

“A lot of blokes think a lot of this stuff is fluffy and bulls**t... but there's a lot in it...it's definitely worth speaking to someone and just getting it off your chest a little bit. It's helped me a lot.”

Mr Burnett said he hoped to reach men who were in the position he once found himself in and guide them towards support.

Highlighting the symbolism of the rucksack, he said: “I think a lot of times men carry a burden... I think a lot of men are happy to carry that burden... but it's just they've lost the appreciation in society... they've been forgotten about.”

“I find in a lot of media and television programs, the Dad is always the goof or the idiot fella. And, we used to be heroes. I think a lot of us still are, or at least aspire to be.”

“The world's kind of moved outside of us, a lot of what we are seems negative now, like toxic masculinity. I'm not saying it's not a problem, but I think in that toxic masculinity is where we find a lot of our centre.”

“I find talking over matters doesn't help me as much as going down and doing some jiu jitsu on the mat.”
“There’s a different way of doing it.”

He noted that globally, 1,440 men will take their own life during the 24-hour period of the challenge.

Mr Burnett also welcomed the fact that women had taken part in the event, saying this helped create a wider sense of community, something he said remained strong in Gibraltar.

Jayne Wink, founder of the organisation Men In Need, took part by standing still for two hours while carrying her rucksack.

She told the Chronicle she had seen first-hand the pressures faced by men in Gibraltar, from family breakdown to severe mental ill health.

“I see on a daily basis a lot of men struggling in the community in different ways,” she said.

“I mean, we go to see cases with where men face parental alienation, men that we visit at Ocean Views because they're suffering from really, really, really bad depression.”

“We also have single fathers that come for assistance because they're not allowed to see their children and they are struggling with that too.”

“We have men with depression. People who have lost businesses, and their life’s just gone down the cracks, and it's hard and it's very sad to see.”

“The problems and the burdens that men face in the community are sometimes too hard for them to carry alone,” she added.

“Just because you see a man smiling or going about his usual routine, doesn’t mean he is okay. And it's okay not to be okay.”

The rucksack challenge, Ms Wink said, underlined the importance of paying attention to those around us and taking time to ask how they are coping.

She urged people to “check in on people”.

“We do not need to not know what their story is, but how they're feeling. How are they doing. And for them to know that we're here for them, that a family member, companion, somebody's there for them, that they're not alone.”

She described the rucksack as a powerful metaphor for the weight many men carry over time.

“In the beginning, we think we can handle the load, but after a while, the weight becomes too much,” she said.

The exercise, she added, showed how ongoing stress and emotional hardship can wear people down, and that men are particularly vulnerable, partly because women tend to talk about their difficulties more.

She wanted to remind men in Gibraltar that opening up about their emotions was positive and necessary.

“There is nothing to be ashamed of. We all have feelings and emotions, and it’s okay not to be okay.”
Lottoland CEO Nigel Birrell said he had joined the challenge both to support Mr Burnett and to draw attention to men’s mental health.

“They're starting to get some since Covid when suicide rates among men became incredibly harsh, and we all know how guys don't want to talk about their problems. I wanted to share my support for that,” he said.

He said the focus of the challenge was not the physical strain of the rucksack itself, but what it represented.

“I think what it means metaphorically, it's the weight of the shoulders.”

“And if you were to share that burden with someone, like, if you and I were both carrying it, it's half the weight.”

“So I think that's the whole point, that if you share that burden with someone you know, then hopefully they're going to help you out on your mental health.”

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