Upper Yarra
5 Tuesday, 16 January, 2018
Hard waste prize
7
Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
Film workshop
A Mail News Group publication
21-22
Best of local sport
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Walk for Sunshine By Kath Gannaway
Please call for appointment 5964
2129
6B/2 Union Road Wandin North 1st Floor above Vic strawberry Association
YARRA VALLEY
andscape
GAS HEAT & COOL
SPECIALISTS IN •SplitSystems •DuctedHeating andCooling •GasApplianceSales andInstallation
Ph: 5966 9999
& Ga den
“There are just no words ... you are completely overwhelmed and shattered.” Follow the Walk for Sunshine on facebook, and like and share to raise awareness. If this story has raised issues for you phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline Australia 1300 78 99 78; beyondblue 1300 22 46 36; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
FOR ALL YOUR GARDEN & LANDSCAPING NEEDS -SAND-SOIL-MULCH-ROCKS-SLEEPERS-PAVERSPIPES-GATES-CEMENT-POTTING MIX, ETC. DELIVERY ALL AREAS
12328060-RC43-16
YARRA RANGES
devastating - and it’s not just the numbers that make it a national tragedy. “I don’t want anyone else like my David to go through what he went through,” she says. “He should have got better care, and, I don’t want any other mother to go through what I am going through.
Picture: Kath Gannaway
1191831-HM30-15
Come and support your local dentist at Wandin. We are all female team with a combined experience of 35 years. We are passionate about delivering quality dental care at affordable prices. We are offering a summer special check up clean xrays for $160. Start the new year with a fresh clean smile.
They plan to arrive in Canberra in Mental Health Week in October and, hopefully, meet with the Prime Minister and others who have the power to effect change. “It’s not just my story Mr Prime Minister, it’s a collective story, and it’s not okay, is the message we want to deliver,” Liane said. Each story however is tragic, each story is
12339093-LB07-17
Your Local Dentist in Wandin.
Liane and Tony Drummond, pictured with Charlie and George, have a chilling message to deliver to Canberra. 176544
AU36010
12377051-LB04-18
Liane and Tony Drummond’s return to the Yarra Valley over Christmas is part of a lifechanging tragedy, and a life-affirming 10,000 kilometre walk for change. Liane’s only son David took his own life a year ago. It was the catalyst for their ‘Walk for Sunshine’ aimed at raising awareness around suicide which she said was the leading cause of death in males aged 16 to 45, and the second in males 46 to 54. The couple had lived in Emerald and Yarra Junction and worked respectively in community health and community education in the Yarra Valley before moving to Chillingham on the New South Wales/Queensland border a few years ago. David, whose nickname was ‘Sunshine’ was just 28 and Liane said he had struggled with mental health issues and a mental health system which failed him. “I thought this is not okay, I don’t want another Sunshine to have to struggle with the system as it is when they are so vulnerable and so unwell,” Liane said. Working in general health care she had assumed that there would be similar access to care available, but found the gap is huge. So far they have walked 2000 kilometres, taking it in turns to walk and drive each day, updating the shocking and growing suicide statistics on a chalkboard on the side of their Walk for Sunshine van. Their conversations along the way are raising awareness of the incidence of suicide, particularly male suicide which accounts for 75 per cent of those who take their own lives, but it is also about gathering the stories of others to take to Canberra. “Our second aim is to lobby the government around what we see as the disparity between physical health care needs and mental health care needs,” Liane said. “Currently mental health accounts for 14 per cent of the burden of care, but it only gets seven per cent of the funding. “We’ve heard so many tragic stories of people being discharged, over and over again and unless there is a movement advocating for change, I can’t see it changing.” The Drummonds are encouraging people to share their stories not only on the road as they pass through their communities, but on their Walk for Sunshine facebook page.
Wattyl Decking Oil 4Ltr $58 10Ltr $130 Can be Tinted
Warburton Highway, Wesburn 3799
Computer Colour Matching
5967 1367
OPEN: MON-FRI 6.30am-5.00PM•SAT 8.00am-12.00noon
9737 6833
24d John St., LILYDALE