ON Friday, seven weeks into his 1440km charity walk across the state, chair of the Emergency Services Foundation and inspector–general for Emergency Management Tony Pearce reached Euroa.
The epic walk named "Tony's Trek" is in support of mental health initiatives to help Victoria's emergency management community, which includes more than 125,000 paid and volunteer members in frontline and support roles.
"In my role I get to see a lot of people and you get to meet those people who are suffering with their mental health because of the emergency service work they do," Mr Pearce said.
"I've lost some friends personally who suffered with their mental health in our job.
"There's an opportunity here to get in earlier with people before they get really sick to help get them an opportunity to start self–managing themselves."
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Mr Pearce arrived in Euroa from Violet Town last Friday, where he was greeted by the Euroa fire brigade.
He rested for one day and enjoyed a barbecue put on by the Euroa fire brigade, then walked from Euroa Fire Station to Avenel on Sunday.
"It's a beautiful place to be walking through the whole area, right the way down from Benalla all the way through here has been lovely," Mr Pearce said.
"The people have been great and it's really important for them to understand they have a lot of community members who are emergency service workers, and that is what this this is all about."
Mr Pearce said the walk has been more difficult than he expected, even with all the training he did beforehand.
"Walking so far and so many days back–to–back has been pretty hard, but we're getting there now," he said.
Mr Pearce is now on the third leg of his trek, Wodonga to Melbourne, having already completed Melbourne to Mallacoota (leg one) and Mallacoota to Wodonga (leg two).
He said the trek has been a great experience but he is looking forward to finishing.
"Walking 50 days and not being home and sleeping in fire stations and sheds and some motels and B&Bs – it'll be nice to get home and get to some normality, get in my bed and have a nice home–cooked meal," he said.
