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Fundraiser launched for family of Jonathan Cantwell, who took his own life aged 36Screen Shot 2018-11-08 at 14.49.30

Fundraiser launched for family of Jonathan Cantwell, who took his own life aged 36

The crowdfunding campaign aims to raise money to help the young family of Cantwell, a former pro cyclist
by Jack Sexty
Thu, Nov 08, 2018 13:20
4

A crowdfunding campaign has been started to financially support the young family of Jonathan Cantwell, the Australian former Saxo-Tinkoff rider who died aged just 36 on Tuesday.

The target is $50,000 with over $15,000 already being raised in 12 hours. The fundraiser says Cantwell "lost his battle to mental illness" after a day spent with family and friends, and also highlights the problem of male suicide in Australia; confirming that he took his own life. The word end by urging readers: "If you are sad, speak up. Speak out. Don’t be ashamed! It’s ok to feel sad. It’s ok to ask for help!" 

There is also a number for non-profit Australian crisis support organisation lifeline; UK equivalents are Samaritans (116 123) or CALM for men (0800 58 58 58), both open 24 hours a day. Head over to the GoFundMe page here. 

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Jonathan Cantwell
Jack Sexty

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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mtbtomo | 5 years ago
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@madcarew Depression can be to do with being sad. Sad is a simple word that people understand as a basic concept and being sad can lead to some pretty bad places whether it's depression or something else that wouldn't be captured by your description but could still no doubt be a mental health issue.

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madcarew | 5 years ago
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Depression has nothing to do with being sad. Robin Williams wasn't sad, Spike Milligan wasn't sad. Depression is about a lack of hope. It's the absence of hope that tomorrow might be better than today; the lack of hope that you have the power to change the things that affect, limit or afflict you; It's about the seeming futility of trying to beat the demons that have followed you for years whose continued presence inhibits you from living a life of hope and promise. Its about the lack of hope that you can change or overcome these things. It's not about being sad. 

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Woldsman | 5 years ago
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A terrible tragedy. Yes, this “battle with...” business isn’t helpful. As this commentator has written elsewhere, the suggestion seems to be made that if only the sufferer had been just a little pluckier things might have turned out differently:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/corrections/errors-and-omissions/erro...

RIP. 

 

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brooksby | 5 years ago
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So sorry to hear about his illness - the article yesterday just said he'd recovered from cancer, but didn't hint about anything else.

(OT:  I remember reading an article recently which suggested that calling anything "a battle with..." (cancer/mental illness/etc) often doesn't help, as there is the implication that if you're not improving or dealing with it then you're a loser).

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