An Edinburgh student who learned more about his family as he got older has said mental health should be ‘accepted and not hidden behind’.
Ronan Ratcliffe, 20, said he was often left wondering why his dad ‘wasn’t as present as others’ as a young boy. Through his teens, he found out that his dad, Nigel, had dealt with bowel cancer, anxiety and depression.
Nigel met and fell in love with Nikki, who he met while in hospital. The pair were together for around a decade, before the family lost Nikki to suicide.
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Ronan, who lives in Edinburgh but is a Sport Science student at Strathclyde University, is now taking on a mammoth challenge in hopes of raising funds for a mental health charity in honour of Nikki.
He’ll be walking 325 miles across over 20 Munros in around two weeks. In May, he’ll set off to complete around 23 miles a day and finish up on the north coast at the end of the month.
Speaking with Edinburgh Live , Ronan said: “When I was younger, I didn’t really understand what was wrong with my dad.
“He’s had cancer twice, and over time there were mental health issues as well so he was in a psychiatric hospital with that a few times. Luckily I was kind of too young to see or understand it at the time.
‘I didn’t really understand what was wrong with my dad’ -Credit:Ronan Ratcliffe
“He actually met his girlfriend Nikki in hospital. She was going through her own issues as well, I learned about all of this when I got older.
“They fell in love and had around 10 years together.”
After Covid, Nikki moved to Glasgow. Ronan said that she thought her mental health might improve if she were back where her roots are.
He continued: “She expected to move back to Glasgow and to have all her problems solved.
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“I guess it didn’t, and she unfortunately took her own life in March 2021. It was a massive knock for my dad.
“It was for me as well. It’s been hard, but we’ve dealt with it. I’m very proud of him.
“Despite my Dad’s struggles, he is one of the strongest people I know in his own right. He has been through so much, and I am very proud of the way he has managed to keep pushing forward and find light through what must have felt like boundless darkness at times.”
Ronan will be raising funds for Scottish Action for Mental Health, in honour of Nikki. He’s also raising funds for Bowel Cancer UK, in honour of his late uncle.
Ronan says what people are going through should be ‘accepted and not hidden’ -Credit:Ronan Ratcliffe
Nigel’s brother, Andy, passed away from bowel cancer in 2023. Ronan says his ‘good nature and kindness’ left an impression on him.
While he’s setting out on the challenge for incredible causes, Ronan says hiking became an important part of his life in his teenage years – and it’s something that helps him massively.
He told us: “I go out in the hills because I’m maybe starting to feel anxious about something at home, and to put myself under that sort of primitive pressure.
“My mum used to try and take me up Munros when I was younger, but I absolutely hated it. I would moan the whole way.
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“At around 14 I got a bit more involved in the outdoors when I learned more about my dad and what he had been through, and from listening to podcasts and reading books about how people got through bad times.
“There’s been situations where I’m honestly thinking, I could die in the hills. It kind of puts things into perspective I support, and you realise that those things you were anxious about aren’t world-ending. They might be important in their own right though.
“There’s such a stigma around mental health with young men and while there’s so much awareness of it these days, it’s almost overbalanced itself. You need to be aware of what you’re going through, and accepting and hot hide behind it.”
Ronan will kick off his challenge in May, and you can help him raise funds for SAMH and Bowel Cancer UK here.