Friends Of Oscar Triathlete was formed in mid 2017 by a group of Indonesian athletes from Tanjung Pinang, Bintan island.

They were coached and mentored by Oscar Feryanto, a superb cyclist who chose triathlon as his primary sport and Oscar was coached by my wife Arsiyanti Ardie (Yanti).

Oscar died by suicide in December 2016, leaving behind a wife and three children, after battling severe depression his whole life and since then these promising young athletes have been struggling to cope with their loss.

They continue to train together in their respective sports, now under the guidance of Yanti and endeavour to honour Oscars memory by training hard and being the best athletes they can.

But they are all poor even by Indonesian standards so they need financial assistance.

Yanti and I have been providing as much support as we can to the athletes and Oscar's family. After Oscar died Yanti provided counselling and mental health support for his family and his athletes despite having no qualification, while dealing with her own grief, because the mental health services that do exist are not affordable for the majority of Indonesians.

However we are now mentally, physically and financially wrecked as a result of our own problems and losses over the past three years so we can't continue providing them with what they need.

We are seeking support to help us help them.

Nobody deserves anything in life but these athletes, who have nothing, have well and truly earned all the support we can provide.

Indonesia is a nation of natural disasters and following every disaster that takes lives there is always a wave of suicides among the survivors who can't deal with their loss so an additional goal of ours is to establish the Oscar Foundation to provide counselling and mental health services in places like Tanjung Pinang.