Blokes lunch backs suicide prevention

A FIVE-thousand-dollar donation has been delivered to representatives of the Ballarat and District Suicide Awareness Network, or BSAN, following the Ballarat’s Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch fundraiser held in March.

The funds were presented last week at the offices of Chris Packer and Associates by event committee member Nick Thurlbeck.

Mr Thurlbeck said providing support to organisations like BSAN is integral for the community.

“It’s incredibly important that funds are attributed to an organisation such as this. The impact of suicide, particularly amongst men in Ballarat is incredibly high,” he said.

“As a committee we’ve done our best to identify and reach out to organisations that are doing good work in Ballarat that could use further financial support.

“If people are aware of other local organisations supporting men’s mental health, we’d love to know about them so we can help in some way.”

Ballarat’s Biggest Ever Blokes Lunch is part of an annual nationwide initiative in support of men’s health.

More than 500 people attended the local lunch which raised more than $100,000 with the majority of funds going towards the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, or PCFA.

Other local beneficiaries included the local PCFA branch, the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute and Ballarat Men’s Mental Health.

The money for BSPN will go towards introducing the Live4Life youth mental health five-year program, which chair Des Hudson said will be an exciting opportunity for the city.

“This will be the largest community that the Live 4 Life team have looked at building a community network of support,” he said.

“We’ve got all our schools that want to participate so we’re really excited by the fact that we can have so many touchpoints with young people.

“Through this, 20,000 young people will have learned some skills about how to have that conversation around suicide and look out for each other.”