Suicide prevention campaigner comes to Ballan

THE Ballan Neighbourhood House tonight hosts a suicide awareness talk by Victorian sports administrator Wayne Holdsworth, who lost his seventeen-year-old son Mac in October last year.

Mr Holdsworth was the one who found Mac’s body on 24 October when he hadn’t appeared at breakfast.

The teenager, who normally rose at 6.30am, had taken his own life after a sextortion incident.

Physically and mentally devastated, Mr Holdsworth sought counselling to get through the pain but, three months later, decided he had a responsibility to help other families avoid the anguish his own was dealing with.

The result was SmackTalk, a registered charity through which Mr Holdsworth travels the country to tell his story and promote suicide prevention.

Tonight’s event takes place from 6.30pm to 7.30pm at the neighbourhood house in Inglis Street.

“I think it’s important to note that starting SmackTalk wasn’t done on a whim,” Mr Holdsworth said. “And while it was only formed some three months after Mac passed away, which many would say was too soon, it was done with the support of weekly grief counselling.”

Mr Holdsworth said he wanted Mac to have a legacy “because at 17, he hadn’t really left one.”

“I also wanted to use his death as a catalyst to do more around suicide prevention and also assist people with seeing the signs that kids and people show, before it’s too late,” he said.

“I formed SmackTalk at the start of January 2024 with the purpose to educate as many people as possible, from the age of 16 all the way through to retired people.

“I want for them to have the skill sets to be able to identify people who are struggling, then to have the skill set to be able to ask the right questions of those people, friends, family.

“We need people to be able to know what steps to take if they identify a person who is in trouble and who has suicidal thoughts – and that all leads to saving more lives.”

He asked Mac regularly if he was OK and his son always responded ‘I am fine, Dad.’ But he wasn’t.

Mr Holdsworth has said that if he had had the knowledge and skills then that he has now, the outcome might have been different.

The neighbourhood house plans to donate half of each $10 ticket sale to SmackTalk to help Mr Holdsworth continue his work.

If you or someone you know needs mental health support, visit beyondblue.org.au or call the 24/7 hotline on 1300 22 4636. You can also visit lifeline.org.au or call on 13 11 14, and help for young people is available at kidshelpline.com.au or by phoning 1800 55 1800.