{"id":372567,"date":"2025-12-26T07:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372567\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T07:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:56:09","slug":"cycling-gave-man-new-purpose-after-overdose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372567\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling gave man &#8216;new purpose&#8217; after overdose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A man who turned his life around after having an overdose has said cycling has given him a &#8220;new purpose in life&#8221; while on a trip from the UK to Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Spencer Wragg, from Leicester, said he is taking on the 20,000km (12,400-mile) challenge to show the benefits of cycling and adventure for mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 29-year-old set off from Dover in June and is hoping to complete the challenge within a year, having spent Christmas in North Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Wragg said cycling allowed him to move away from his former lifestyle following his overdose after three days of partying in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The year-long adventure will see the cyclist travel through 31 countries, including Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Nepal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Wragg said this was the second trip he had been on since his overdose, previously cycling from the UK to Athens in Greece.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Spencer Wragg wearing a yellow jacket surrounded by men in Afghanistan\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/642ee50ec7ca8f03e6956e0f4459875c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Spencer Wragg cycled through Afghanistan during his trip [Supplied]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I used to be a pretty hardcore raver,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It led me to one day being out after three days of non-stop partying and I ended up overdosing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Around the two-year mark [after the overdose], I thought what better way to prove to myself, to take this second chance at life, than to do something to inspire others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The cycling just gave me a whole new purpose in life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I had that whole non-stop partying lifestyle and have replaced it with the bike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Spencer Wragg sat on the wing of a derelict white and blue airplane in a desert\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d3e0b6aba7f14ac4de8a8fdbb961811f.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Spencer Wragg is hoping to complete the trip within a year [Supplied]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, Mr Wragg&#8217;s trip has not been all smooth sailing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He crashed after only 12 days, damaging his bike as he hit a tree stump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fortunately, the cyclist was uninjured, but he had to return to the UK to get a replacement frame before continuing the trip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Wragg said he wanted his story and the trip to show how cycling and the outdoors can help mental health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;My aim is to inspire people to get out a lot more, go see the world and travel and reap the benefits of being on a bicycle,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;That comes with the benefits of cycling for mental health as well, so it all ties itself in together really.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If you&#8217;ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC Leicester on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LeicesterBBC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCLeicester\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>, or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcleicester\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. Send your story ideas to <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.style.yahoo.com\/mailto:eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk\" data-ylk=\"slk:eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk<\/a> or via <a href=\"https:\/\/wa.me\/message\/UL37JYU6NGFTK1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WhatsApp;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WhatsApp<\/a> on 0808 100 2210.<\/p>\n<p>More on this story<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who turned his life around after having an overdose has said cycling has given him a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,514,201509,201508,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-372567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mr-wragg","13":"tag-spencer-wragg","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}