I’m originally from Temora in country NSW. I lived there until I moved down to Canberra when I was 18.

Mental health is something that was never really considered when I was younger. Then on either side of Christmas in 2014, I lost two of my friends from Temora to suicide. It had quite a devastating effect on our whole community.

Males, particularly, tend to hide what we feel and we don’t actually get out and have a chat about what is going on. However, it is such an important conversation.

With mental health, there is a lot of emphasis on the big cities but there is so many country kids who are falling through the cracks. That’s fact. The suicide rate is much higher than it should be - not only within youth, but within the older generation too.

When you are out in country areas, you are excluded from many support networks and those you do have can be very small.

I lost my leg in a farm accident when I was 12 and I had access to professional help straight away. I never used it, but I always knew it was there.

There is still this idea that you are seen as weak to talk about mental health issues you might be facing. If we can break that cycle in country areas I think we can save many lives.