Pretty sad news for everyone out there. As a result of the Wall Street crisis and recent financial instability, One Step Further has had to be postponed until next year (2012).

It was a very difficult decision and I’ve put off writing this post for quite some time. We are lucky that this is happening now before most of our full payments have been made, but it’s quite devastating to make the decision so late.

At the end of the day, we are both aware that this isn’t a small undertaking and doing things like last-minute-fundraising at significant amounts in the current financial climate is neigh on impossible, and that the best decision for ourselves, our sponsors and our supporters (thus why the sponsor-a-km program hasn’t started yet) was to postpone the expedition a year in the hope that we can drum up some stronger support and that the markets recover! Thanks also to those who helped us through this difficult decisonmaking process, coming to what is really the only solution.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the expedition so much. It’s been an intense learning experience and I’ve gone through a number of personal changes throughout my journey, met some fantastic new people and discovered what is possible. I’ve also learned the critical skill of deciding when something isn’t possible – a hard thing for someone who is convinced that you can do anything on almost any timeframe!

We’re going to sort out a few other things in our lives and then get onto 2012. In the meantime, check out some of the initiatives OSF has been involved in such as the Hard Knock Life conference and the Soften the Fck Up campaign. It’s been an incredible ride and I hope that we can both continue our work in promoting youth mental health awareness and initiatives next year and in the future.

To follow us, you can contact us at tom@onestepfurther2011.com.au or hugh@onestepfurther2011.com.au or alternatively at @hughstephens (Twitter).

With the launch of our sponsor-a-km program coming up soon, we’d love to announce a few other projects the team has been working on.

In September, One Step Further (more information about our Antarctic expedition raising awareness for youth mental health here) will host the Hard Knock Life conference, bringing together young people and youth organizations for two days of talking about creating a better world now and in the future.

The conference will run in Melbourne over two days, 9 and 10 September 2011. It’ll be one of the first conferences to offer free registration for anyone under 25, and costs only $50 for individuals over 25 and $100 for organizations. Hopefully it will be the first of many conferences to ensure that young people aren’t cut out from having their thoughts and opinions heard for financial reasons.

One of the first conferences that is designed by young people for young people, we hope that through One Step Further young people will realize:

• That we can create the changes we want in society; on a local, national and global level,
• That there are tools, organizations and people out there to help empower anyone to be involved, and;
• No challenge is too great.

We hope that this is the first of many projects that come out of OSF to benefit young Australians.

Follow the conference here: http://hardknocklife.info or on Twitter @HKL11

Tonight we’re launching our video as the first step towards a series of big news coming in the next couple of weeks.

While things have been pretty quiet recently, we’re ramping up for a big launch. I won’t spoil the surprise by giving all the details now, but it involves us dragging tires for a long distance!

When we launch officially, we’ll make our Sponsor a km program live, so that you can pick a kilometer to sponsor. We’ll thank you on the day that we cover it, and for the more ‘special’ ones there will be other prizes! They’ll start from $30 and the money raised will go towards:

1. Expedition costs
2. Providing free access to a specialized online mental health screening tool to young Australians
3. Funding mental health projects in a very unique way (details will be coming very soon!)

Sign up to be informed (once-off email) of the Sponsor a km launch here.

Finally, check out the video below!

Every fortnight a group of people from across Australia get together on Twitter to discuss issues around mental health in rural and remote communities. Last night’s chat was on “seeing the signs” and discussed the signs of depression and anxiety, and covered quite extensively the issue of suicide and self-harm.

I’ve made up a bit of a summary (that isn’t that short! 1 and a half hours of tweets is more than you’d expect) and have included it below.

Hugh has been featured in an interview recently with Australian Doctor, the leading news and information website for Australian General Practitioners.

The interview is available here but requires you to register as a health practitioner or medical student. I’ve reproduced the article below.

In the Hot Seat 2-May-2011

Hugh Stephens is a medical student who in December will embark on the One Step Further expedition, which involves a 1300km unsupported trek to the South Pole in just 30 days in support of youth mental health.

If I hadn’t worked in medicine, I would have been … involved in nanotechnology. I love the idea of being at the forefront of innovation and having limitless capacity for the expansion of knowledge. Plus I’d be able to justify an iPad 2 as a tax deduction.

If I could change one thing about medicine it would be … an increase in public health education, and the empowerment of individuals and communities to be partners in their own healthcare. Too many common diseases are largely preventable, and too many diagnoses come too late for effective treatment.

If I could discover the cure for just one disease it would be … social stigma. Does that count? Otherwise I suppose it wouldn’t be too bad to be the guy that cured HIV.

The innovation that will impact my field most in the next 10 years is … social media. While it’s not that big from a healthcare perspective in Australia, it has the ability to revolutionise public health and interactions between health experts.

The book that changed me was … Life in His Hands by Susan Wyndham. It chronicles the capacity we have to change individual lives and is one of the reasons I wanted to do medicine.

My greatest influence has been … Twitter. I’ve connected with incredible people and learnt about cutting edge medical technology — with a lot less effort than reading journals.

A perfect Sunday morning is … spent asleep, followed by an afternoon training for One Step Further. This includes going for a long walk while dragging a tyre behind me, which mimics skiing with a sled attached to me.

If I was a car I would be a … 1970 MGB. No real idea why, but I’ve always wanted one.

My greatest fear is … losing a finger to frostbite in Antarctica and subsequently not being able to become a surgeon.

Hugh Stephens spoke with Michael East

As you might have noticed, we’ve updated the design of our website. For those of you who are interested, it is now build on WordPress with the “Thesis” framework, which lets us have more control over the design and ‘look’ of the site.

Let us know your thoughts on the new design!

There have also been some changes in the ‘back end’ so that now it’s easier to follow us through FeedBurner.

To follow us via an RSS reader or email, click the ‘Subscribe’ link on the top right of the page or click here.

Watch this space for a wrap of our not-so-successful training weekend – thwarted by traffic, weather and a bad McDonalds dinner!

It’s fantastic to see a large organisation like Apple get behind a controversial project like “It Gets Better”, which aims to encourage LGBT youth that life does get better.

I think that the video strongly speaks for itself, and applies beyond LGBT issues and into greater life. Check it out yourself!

Due to Tom being sick, we’re off training in the Blue Mountains instead of the Snowy Mountains to make sure he recovers ASAP. We’ll post updates along the way

Enjoy your Easter weekend!

I ran last Sunday in the ‘Run 4 The Kids’ Fun-run to support the Royal Children’s Hospital here in Melbourne. It was 14.38km, and represented to me an opportunity to prove to myself that the training I’ve been doing has had some sort of effect!

I finished the race in 1 hour and 16 minutes. Just below my target of 1:20 which is great! I think that had I tried to run the race prior to starting to train I’d be stuck somewhere along the course still trying to recover.

Here’s the photo that I took of myself at the halfway mark, while going across the Bolte Bridge:

I think I felt a whole lot worse than I look in the photo! It was a fair struggle to maintain a 5:20/km pace when I’ve been training at about 5:30 – the difference certainly took the energy out of me!

I’ll hopefully be well recovered before this weekend’s training trek.

Follow our Facebook Page or Twitter Account to get updates along the way – I’m hoping to have mobile access in the Snowys to keep everyone updated!

• 4,000 candles lit on Parliament House lawns to encourage funding for mental health #mh20 http://bit.ly/e8kQfN #
• Lifeline to provide online Crisis Support Chat 8pm-midnight to trial online counseling http://bit.ly/fWr2ut #mh20 #mentalhealth #
• Lifeline to provide online Crisis Support Chat 8pm-midnight to trial online counseling. http://bit.ly/fWr2ut #
• RT @abcnews: Funding undermines PM's mental health promises: expert http://bit.ly/gBWWaF #ruralmh #
• @Mark_Butler_MP @headspace_aus will b great to see eHeadspace expanded to 24/7 too! Great service… #
• @hughstephens and Tom planning some training over Easter in snowy mtns. Will let you know how it goes! #
• Hugh and Tom off to train in the snowy mountains next week at Easter. Will let you know how we go!! #
• Thanks! @softentfu doin gr8 work 2 RT @unsuicide: Heroes doin physical feats 4 #mentalhealth awareness: @ridedonthide @osf2011 @LoveWorldRun #

• 4,000 candles lit on Parliament House lawns to encourage funding for mental health #mh20 http://bit.ly/e8kQfN #
• Lifeline to provide online Crisis Support Chat 8pm-midnight to trial online counseling http://bit.ly/fWr2ut #mh20 #mentalhealth #
• Lifeline to provide online Crisis Support Chat 8pm-midnight to trial online counseling. http://bit.ly/fWr2ut #
• RT @abcnews: Funding undermines PM's mental health promises: expert http://bit.ly/gBWWaF #ruralmh #
• @Mark_Butler_MP @headspace_aus will b great to see eHeadspace expanded to 24/7 too! Great service… #
• @hughstephens and Tom planning some training over Easter in snowy mtns. Will let you know how it goes! #
• Hugh and Tom off to train in the snowy mountains next week at Easter. Will let you know how we go!! #
• Thanks! @softentfu doin gr8 work 2 RT @unsuicide: Heroes doin physical feats 4 #mentalhealth awareness: @ridedonthide @osf2011 @LoveWorldRun #