LONGER READ: Former footballer and charity runner who shared an England dressing room with David Beckham and Phil Neville is using the Highlands' famous NC500 route as inspiration for mental health advice
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A retired footballer who once starred alongside David Beckham is using his extraordinary success in conquering the North Coast 500 by foot as the basis for inspirational messages on mental health.
Earlier this month, Nicky Forster went through the agonies as he completed 15 ultra-marathons in 15 days around the famous Highland tourist route.
Averaging 35 miles a day, including a 43-mile day-shift over the infamous Bealach na Ba pass near Applecross, the gutsy former England under 21 cap often ran but sometimes walked, counting over a million steps along the way.
All through the challenge, completed on July 14, the extreme highs and lows resonated in his mind as a metaphor for life.
Not content with raising just over £8000 for Mental Health UK, Mr Forster is now directing his energies into a website and blog aimed at helping people to turn personal struggle into positive change.
A precocious talent in his youth, known for goalscoring prowess, the 50-year-old played with Beckham and Phil Neville, then at Manchester United, for the young England team.
At the renowned Toulon tournament in 1995 he went up against future France legend Robert Pires and Brazilian genius Juninho, among others.
A long and successful club career followed with spells at the higher English league levels with 10 permanent clubs, including the likes of Brighton, Brentford, Birmingham City and Ipswich Town but found it took 14 years “to find purpose in life” after hanging up his boots.
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Moved to act by his own experiences and challenges in the void that followed his football career ending, Mr Forster is keen to offer help and advice to footballers and other sports people, but feels the message rings true for all who experience mental health issues.
He completed the 516-mile route just as current Everton and England attacker Dele Alli went public on his traumatic childhood and subsequent mental health challenges.
Describing the solo and unassisted NC500 challenge as an emotional rollercoaster that tested his body and spirit to the limit, Mr Forster admitted: “It was tough!
“I found it was just about getting through each day, one day at a time.
“That resonated with the mental health cause, which was my whole motivation for the fundraising challenge.
“As people can experience in everyday life, I found myself battling these internal dialogues as to whether to keep running, walk or just stop.
“It was always a case of just getting through the next most important thing and, likewise, when people are struggling with mental health, it is important not to look too far ahead.
“It is about getting through today. That’s what it came down to on the NC500. It was a great challenge – incredibly tough, but hugely-rewarding.
Mr Forster’s challenge was 10 months in the planning, but just three weeks before he set off his support driver pulled out because of business commitments.
Rather than scrap or delay the challenge, he resolved to complete it solo and unassisted, pulling behind him a cart with his camping and other gear which eventually had to be abandoned halfway round.
Great moments of kindness from local residents helped keep him on track, but the extreme lows of the challenge, including another 13 hour, 40-plus mile day in relentless rain, reduced him to tears at times.
He explained: “I got the cart around halfway, but it was becoming such an issue. I got rid of it and switched to a back-pack.
“I arranged with someone to deliver my cart back to the hotel in Inverness.
“One of the days I’ll never forget was 103,000 steps alone, a 43-mile day over the Bealach na Ba pass.
RELATED STORY: Ex-footballer's massive charity goal - raising £500,000 by running the NC500!
“It’s an amazing place, but horrendous at the same time! It was an incredible experience.
“Two days before the finish, it was possibly harder than Bealach along the east coast, as it was a 42-mile with relentless wind and driving rain. That was seriously tough.
“The whole trip was an emotional rollercoaster. I cried my eyes out at times.
“Some of the people, the locals, were so friendly and so helpful, at times when I really didn’t expect it.
“There was one where I pulled up at a campsite at Gairloch. It was pouring with rain and had been the whole day, 13 hours on the road.
“I said to them I couldn’t put the tent up in the pouring rain and asked if I could sleep in the toilet block, showers or reception area.
“They said sorry, ‘you just can’t’, but while I was in the shower cubicle, the lady came round and told me there was a car outside and her partner had pulled a caravan up onto the camping area.
“Moments like that were just fantastic, just so humbling. It really was amazing.
“At times you are at your most vulnerable it does tend to bring the best out in people.
“The local people were so helpful, so charming, all the way around. I can’t thank them enough.”
Mr Forster, given his career, naturally has a special interest and insight into the mental well-being of footballers.
He recognises that public sympathy is not always there, given the vast salaries some earn in the profession, but stressed that mental health issues were indiscriminate in who they affected.
He said: "I’m blessed, at 50 years old, to still be able to move, run, cycle, swim. As long as I can, I will go out and exercise.
"Exercise along with other coping mechanisms has enabled me to keep the wolves of mental health from my door. Others are not so lucky.
“Just as I finished the challenge, Dele Alli was going public with his mental health struggles.
“There are lows and highs all the way through a career and footballers have money, fame, cars and houses, but when struggling with life a fancy new car doesn’t resonate for long.
“No-one is exempt. That’s not me trying to make people feel sorry for footballers, it’s just the case that everyone has mental health - good, bad or indifferent.
“Over 30 per cent of people struggle with mental health at some time over the course of their lifetime.
“The biggest killer of men under the age of 50 is suicide. The statistics are there for all to see.
“My challenge was really about trying to generate as much awareness as I could.”
Mr Forster continues to fundraise for Mental Health UK, with his JustGiving page found here.
