Humanitarian Ryan Phillips has a passion for helping the world understand the deeply rooted issues that cause mental illness. Taking matters into his own hands on a bicycle, he advocated for solutions to the cause which has haunted him and millions of others by crossing the second-largest landmass in the world-Canada, and numerous countries in Asia in 2019; and its challenges to end the stigma surrounding mental health. He talks about his own mental health battle, having to visit numerous hospitals along the journey, mental resilience, trauma and how we can all play our part in helping the modern-day plague. Ryan factually explains how the world can help heal this invisible disease and global epidemic through awareness and mass media. Ryan’s life is about the dramatic events that changed the life of former professional hockey player Ryan Phillips. Phillips’ journey to extraordinary change began after a series of serious challenges that derailed his hockey career. Ryan learned a lot from those challenges, most importantly how important freedom is. He began to see the spiritual side of life and made the decision that he wanted to help serve the world in a positive way. He recently embarked on a bicycle ride throughout Canada and Asia advocating mental health awareness in the manifestation of spiritual growth and social activism. The ride will be depicted in an upcoming documentary, “Mental Illness, The Ride to Wellness.” Ryan became actively involved in activism to help children who have been sold into child sex slavery and received a humanitarian pardon in 2012 from the USA. He is an international speaker, a published author, and a documentary producer of Return To Happiness. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx