After an attempted suicide in 2015, 25-year-old Josh Quigley, from Edinburgh, got on his bike and took a journey of self-discovery

Iset off knowing nothing about endurance cycling and what riding great distances entails. I probably still don’t. But on 26 May 2016 – the first anniversary of attempting to kill myself by crashing my car into a wall at 80mph – and still suffering with depression and self-doubt, I left Edinburgh with a view to riding as far as I could.

At the end of that first day I wondered if I’d made the right decision, I was seriously unfit but I felt I had been kept alive for a reason and I had to carry on.

My destination was happiness. When I cycled past Buckingham Palace it began to hit home; I felt like I was actually doing something to make things better. I’d hoped to ride around the world but I’m over-ambitious. Instead of cycling direct through Europe and the Middle East I went to the highest point in Scandinavia. It’s not the route to take if you want to circumnavigate the globe! So I rode to Sweden, and I really couldn’t believe I’d achieved that. Then I rode through Norway – I’d recommend every cyclist rides there, it’s like the Highlands of Scotland on steroids – truly amazing! And I carried on, riding 14,000 miles in total through 15 countries. If I’d followed a straight path for 18,000 miles I may have got around the world, but I went my own way, and along the way I stayed with other cyclists and spoke at schools about mental health issues. I’d spend the day cycling then stop and eat and read. In the south of France I got what I call my ‘Forrest Gump’ moment. I thought to myself, ‘I’m happy now, I think I’ll head home.’ The homecoming after such an amazing experience is tough, it can be an anti-climax. But my ride had given me the bug to get outdoors and experience all that my second chance at life has to offer.

In the south of France I got what I call my ‘Forrest Gump’ moment