Brian Connolly

I'm Riding for Men's Health in The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

On Sunday the 18th of May 2025, I'm riding in The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride with fellow men and women across the globe to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and men's mental health on behalf of Movember. Men die on average 6 years earlier than women and for largely preventable reasons. Please donate.                

A little piece I wrote last year about suicide:

In an act of pure disdain, Jimmy steals Ace's Vespa GS 160 and heads to Beachy Head, where we panoramically ride along with him on the cliff's edge. We are not carried by dialogue, the puttering of the engine, the waves below but by iconic visual beauty and the music of The Who. 

Our journey together encapsulates a vastness, a danger, a beauty. It’s limitless. It’s relief. Its freedom. It’s boundless until we arrive at the crossroads of life. There the lost, troubled wild eyed teenager pulls to a dramatic stop. The camera pans to majestic white cliffs that lay below. Both now face out onto the infinite horizon. The crescendo of the score now questions at full throttle- Rain on me or Love. He turns and thankfully drives away only to return. His eyes dilate in deadly focus. He stands up  on the floorboards and menacingly screams back. The end is near. We lose sight of both and only see the fast approaching cliff front. The camera returns to the cliff front and we see the driverless silver Vespa fly briefly horizontal before it drops to the floor below. It is dramatically trashed on the rocks below without Jimmy.