A young filmmaker plans to unicycle round the island in support of a youth mental health charity.

Charlie Rixon, aged 17, from near Royston in Hertfordshire, is filming his four-day challenge with the help of two friends and plans to enter the documentary into adventure film festivals next year.

Charlie, who only started unicycling two months ago, will start on Saturday and plans travel a distance of about 22km a day.

The trio have already raised £1,000 for Young Minds, a charity close to Charlie’s heart as he has previously suffered from paranoia, depression, anxiety and stress.

He explained: ’The unicycling has been really hard but every time I got home from work I would just throw myself at it and beg that I could balance for longer than a minute.

’Now I can do about a kilometre without stopping.’

Charlie first came up with the idea when he was 15 and since then has been working to save up for the challenge.

’I was just scribbling on a page and drew a unicycle for fun,’ he said.

’Then when you’re bored your thoughts run away, and here we are now.’

Despite having never been to the Isle of Man before he came up with the idea of cycling round it as an achievable but challenging distance.

’It looked like a manageable distance,’ he said.

’So Ireland is far too big, so is the UK. I didn’t want to do anything smaller than the Isle of Man like Alderney.’

Workout

He’s expecting to find the challenge ’really difficult,’ but he added: ’With the correct mindset and support from my cameraman and second camera/support vehicle I feel confident in completing the trip.

’I am mainly worried about cars whizzing past me.

’It’s really easy to lose concentration and when you do falling off is fairly inevitable.’

He added: ’Going up hills are surprisingly easier than going down and whatever the rate your legs are moving, that is your set speed.

’It’s a constant workout.’

Young Minds is a UK charity that offers round the clock mental health support to young people and their families.

Their activists campaign for political change and spread the message in schools, at events and online about how to look after your mental health.

’Personally, I never went to this charity,’ Charlie explained.

’But when I wasn’t in a good place I wish I had known that you can talk to someone without months of waiting lists.’

Their route will take them on roads around the island from Port Erin.

He’s being supported by his friends Matthew Owen, who is the film’s producer and also camera operator, and Milo Abbiss, who will be second camera and also driving the support vehicle.

’The film is going to be a 15-20 minute documentary about the whole process.

’Learning how to do it, raising money, doing the trip, the difficulties, and then coming home.’