By Shaurya Shaurya

Copyright walesonline

A group of friends from Pembrokeshire, took on the unforgiving Welsh three peaks challenge wearing just their underwear to raise awareness about men’s mental health. Their challenge coincided with the World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, which also saw Prince William visit Wales for a very special reason. Other Welshmen, including Tyrone Davies from Resolven, Neath Port Talbot have also spoken about their mental health challenges, and how men often shy away from seeking help despite its importance. The message become more poignant after concerns were raised following research from Wales that found seven times as many fathers died by suicide in their baby’s first 1,001 days compared to mothers. Tal Tamilia, 21, Jay Evans, 22, Oliver Rotherero, 21, and Finn Gale, 21 — all schoolmates from Pembrokeshire , decided to undertake the three Welsh peaks in budgie smugglers to spread the message that its okay for men to be “vulnerable”. Stay informed on the latest health news by signing up to our newsletter here The motivation for the challenge came from personal loss, as Tal lost his cousin, Timothy Reynolds to suicide in March 2021, and one of Jay’s family members committed suicide before he was born. “With the budgies, I think a lot of it was a message to men of ‘Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable,'” Tal said. “With men’s mental health, I think there’s a lot of stigma around telling people how you actually feel. “A lot the old mantra of man up. I think that’s past its time now. People are starting to sort open up about their actual feelings which is good because you can’t suffer alone and unfortunately some people do and you know bad things happen.” The group scaled Snowdon, Cdair Idris, and Pen-y-Fan within 24 hours, on September 10 and 11. Though they had planned to do all the peaks in one go, bad weather and subsequent delays meant the group had to make a pit stop in Brecon before attempting to climb Pen-y-Fan. The budgie boys, as the group calls themselves, caught quite a few eyes while on their way up. “People had a lot of shock to be honest. It was quite cold, windy and rainy and a lot people were in full mountain gear and we were there in our budgie smugglers, ” Tal said. “So people were thinking we were a bit crazy but as soon as we told them what it was, they were loving it, we had so much support.” Tal believes his cousin Timothy would have had a similar reaction. “He would laugh and say, ‘What are you doing?’ Call me crazy probably” Tal said. “He might have ended up joining in. He was quite fun like that. I know he would have been looking down quite proud of us boys.” You can donate to the budgie boys’ fundraiser for Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen Mind, a charity which helped Tal’s family after his cousin’s death here .