August 15, 2024 • 23 mins
Aberdeen's Kate Jones lost her son Jared to suicide 8 months ago. And while the pain is still very raw, Kate is trying to ease her own heartache by "doing something" to help others process the sense of hopelessness.
Warning: This episode contains discussion on suicide.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Heeart Abba Hunter. Hello, I'm Darren Katrupe. We need
to begin with a warning that this episode contains a
detailed and frank discussion about suicide a mother's tragic loss
of a son. Should this podcast raise any issues for you,
there is help available twenty four to seven through Lifeline.
(00:22):
You can call them on thirteen eleven fourteen, text them
on zero four seven seven thirteen eleven fourteen, or reach
out online via the Lifeline website which is lifeline dot
org dot au. My guest today is Kate Jones. Kate
is a former school principal and a policeman's wife, and
(00:43):
many listening will know her well or know of the family.
Kate has decided to somehow try and turn the tragic
death of their son, Jared, who took his own life
in December last year, into an opportunity to help others
process the depth of their greed and also identify key
indicators that someone you love may be suffering.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Jared Stephen Jones an absolutely wonderful young man. I came
into Jared's life when he was eighteen months old. His
dad was raising Jared and his sister, and Steve and
I found each other and ended up marrying, so I
became I guess Jared's day to day mum when he
was four years old. I over the years obtained the
(01:29):
name the old Chuk, so I guess that makes me
mum in a roundabout way. Jared was a very talented
young sportsman. He held a national swimming record, was a
great cricketer, AFL footballer. Didn't like school so much, but
loved the social side of school. He obtained an apprenticeship
(01:50):
with Camatsu when he was sixteen and just love mining
until the day that we lost him. Mining was his
love in his life, the friendships, he loved, the hard
work that went with it. He loved coming home covered
in dirt and having done a really hard day's work. Unfortunately,
when he was about sixteen, he sustained a nasty head
(02:14):
injury in a motorbike accident, and I guess that's when
things started to change. Mental health started interspersing with a
really good life and he continued to live a really
successful life. He moved up through the ranks as a
(02:35):
mining supervisor. He is very well known through many of
the local minds. He was engaged to be married and
we all spent lots of time together as a family.
The last ten years, I guess were his most difficult.
(02:55):
He continued to the outside world to largely a happy
life and a busy life, but his dad and I
spent a lot of time with him behind the scenes,
helping trying to get him support. He had a couple
of very close colleagues in the mining industry who to
(03:17):
this day have now become my dear mates, and they
never once gave up on Jared, and it's probably full
credit to them that he stayed with us as long
as he did. He was just a fine, lovable young
man who loved dogs, loved his family, just to the
(03:39):
outside world, loved life.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Kate Jones thinks a succession of sports related brain injuries
played a privotal role in Jared's mental health decline in
later years, something that never occurred to them when he
first came off a motorbike as a teenager.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No, mental health didn't even enter our mind. We did
very carefully follow the brain injury path. Jared was transferred
to John Hunter Hospital and they were wonderful. But when
you look back twenty years ago to where things are
with brain injuries and mental health now, we were all
(04:18):
very naive and you know, the treatment was to have
regular appointments, but to just get on with life. But
his dad, Steve and I noticed that little things changed,
like he had been a fantastic bowler in cricket and
you know, was looking at representing the district and the region,
(04:39):
and all of a sudden someone would throw him the
ball and he couldn't catch it, he'd drop it. But
we were given the advice that he would continue to
improve over time. My husband took over coaching the Musclebrook
Cat's AFL side, and Jared transferred his love of motorbike
riding to AFL football. And we believe that there were
(05:04):
probably a number of more concussions over the years which
didn't help that initial brain injury. But we as the
years went by, were beside Jared when he went through
a lot of mental health issues. And it's still being
investigated as to whether his mental health issues had anything
(05:24):
to do with the brain injury or whether his mental
health issues stemmed from something else.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well, that'll be left up to the coroner to decide
in their due course. When was it that mental health
sort of vil armed bills about mental health issues as
a result of these concussions sort of started coming into
you and Steve's mind.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In hindsight, it's very hard to find a time. Jared
was in a very committed relationship from a young age
for approximately ten years, and I think because he had
that security of a great relationship and his fat both
families we were all very close. But after that relationship ended,
(06:13):
we noticed that alcohol. Jared would start using alcohol or
would start taking more risky behaviors, not doing illegal things
or dishonest things, but just something as simple as doing
a burnout in his car when he'd be leaving, and
I know that's something that all young men like to do.
But increasing behaviors like that, or his anger. He'd never
(06:38):
been an angry boy, but the older that he got
in his mid twenties, he would become angry just at
the click of a finger.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
He wouldn't have dared do something illegal.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
No, although that sometimes is the reason to try things out,
just to see how far dad will let it go.
But in Jared's last three weeks, we had some laughs
about him being chased off the Aberdeen Common by his
very own dad in a police car. Steve loved his
children so dearly, but he also was a really tough
(07:11):
down the line cop, So they were some of Jared's
funny memories being tailed by his dad. It was never
anything dishonest, but he was always pushing the boundaries just
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Kate says, while revelations of Jared's dark thoughts came as
a complete surprise, he battled on with him for many
years before it all became too much.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Jared started speaking about wanting to commit suicide after a
breakup with another girl he loved. I want to say
this in the nicest of ways. Jared loved being in
a relationship and he loved being kind to his partner.
He just to him, having a girlfriend that he could
(07:57):
do things with and enjoy time with was one wonderful
But he had a particularly nasty breakup with a lovely girl.
But the breakup came about because of Jared's behavior, and
his girlfriend at the time decided to be honest with us,
and that was really the first that it came to
(08:20):
our attention. Jared had indicated to his dad a couple
of times that he was going to in inverted Comma's
neck himself because he just couldn't cope with what was
going on, and Steve took him to see a doctor,
and the doctor prescribed some medication which low level, and
(08:45):
things seemed to go on. But then one Saturday night,
Steve was a policeman, so understandably, when the ambulance officers
got called to Jared's home, one of them phoned Steve
and Jared had made that was a very close suicide attempt.
(09:05):
That was the first attempt that he'd made. He'd spoken
about it a lot, he was using alcohol very heavily,
but the ambulance officers told us that night that he
was within ten seconds of losing his life. And basically
from then on life never never in any way returned
(09:25):
to normal.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
If you're distressed in any way by this conversation, or
you just have feelings that you're not comfortable with at
this time or from time to time, that there is
help there twenty four to seven through Lifeline, they do
a wonderful job, whether you call them on thirteen eleven
fourteen or go to lifeline dot org dot au. And
(09:49):
they even have a text back service. If you're not
comfortable talking to a stranger, then you can just text
if text is more your thing, and I've got to
say that's with a lot more common these days in
the conversations I have with people at Lifeline, but I'm
a bit old fashioned. I'd rather talk on old dog
and bone. But there are all sorts of ways to
(10:13):
reach out and see KELP. So please don't ever feel alone.
You can. You can access help twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week if you're not comfortable with speaking
with friends or family or whatever. The hardest part of
this conversation, not just for you, but for me, is
(10:33):
what happened. Eventually Jared came home to you, and it
wasn't that long before he left us.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
No excuse me if I do get emotional, but I
Jared had complex issues before Christmas, which are part of
the coronial investigation, so I won't discuss that in any way.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But this is Christmas last year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Christmas twenty twenty three, and he reached out to me
and said, Mom, I need to come home. And I guess,
while it's the saddest thing, it's also one of the
proudest moments of my life because we lost Steve's dad
not even two years earlier, accidentally, and I was just
(11:25):
proud that Jared wanted to come home to the old chalk.
I remember the phone call saying, Mom, can I just
come home? I need some old chalok time. That was
what he used to call me, and putting it in
practical terms, that's what I was. I was just the
old chook that was there when he needed someone. He
came home on the sixth of January, and I thought
(11:48):
that I had become very attuned to Jared's suicidal thoughts,
to signs that he was headed downwards. This time, we
were making plans, We were moving forward, We were literally
(12:11):
moving ahead with life and making decisions about his future.
My mum was ill over at tire and I went
away for thirty six hours, and Jared continued texting and
calling me as we always had done. Little quirks like
if Jared didn't feel like talking, we had an agreement
that he would send me a full stop, just a
(12:33):
full stop, because then I would know that he was breathing,
that he was upright, and that things were okay. On
the Sunday night, and I am being very raw because
I want people who have gone through similar things to
know that it's okay to talk about it. He was
going to bed at eight thirty four every night. He
(12:56):
would look at his clock and say it's time to
get ready for bed. And on the Sunday night I
received the usual message saying night Mum, love you, see
you tomorrow, and I would always message back and say
good night my boy, love you too. Um. He never
would respond after that, but on the Sunday night he
responded back and said see you tomorrow, and I just
(13:19):
sent back two kisses. I thought he must be feeling
really good because he's instead of cutting off it that
love you mate. He sent me another message back last
thing I ever heard. Ten minutes after he sent me
that message, the CCTV at home shows him quietly leaving
(13:42):
home and heading out to the space where he'd chosen
to end his life.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Stay with us on iHeart Upper Hunter, we get to
how some late night scowling across social media caused Kate's
focus to shift a ways of helping others save lives
their loved ones. I Heart aper Hunter, I Heart aper Hunter.
(14:11):
I'm Darren Katrubi continuing our conversation with Aberdeen's Kate Jones,
who lost her son Jared to suicide eight months ago.
While the pain of Jared's loss is still very raw
for Kate to speak about, she wants to ease her
own heartache by doing something to help others process what
can be a death that leads to so many unanswered questions.
(14:35):
She also wants to connect others to the expertise available
to help a son, daughter, mother, father, or friend who
is feeling just so hopeless. In a few weeks time,
Kate will hold a special event at the Aberdeen Sports
and Recreation Club and adjacent golf course, the inaugural Jared's
(14:56):
nine for nine.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I was scrolling through Facebook at two o'clock one morning
when I couldn't sleep, yeah, as you do, and saw
the simple lifeline message out of the Shadows come up,
and I thought, you know what. My first thought was
the Aberdeen golf course and around the river would just
be a beautiful place for a few of Jared's friends
(15:18):
to go for a walk. So I spoke to a
couple of his close mining colleagues as well as a
friend of his here in Musclebrook, and they said, oh, yes,
we'll come along. And I thought it would just be
nice to give it a name that reflected Jared and
that made it human for other people who perhaps had
(15:40):
children who were going through the same thing, or family
members or friends that they had lost, and so I
put up a simple post on my Facebook page and
had over two hundred responses within twelve hours, and I
just thought, maybe I can do something thing here to
(16:01):
recognize Jared most importantly of course, but reading about Lifeline
and it officially costs thirty one dollars ninety for each
call that a Lifeline person takes, and I thought, well,
even if we could just make three hundred dollars, that
(16:23):
would almost that would cover, in very harsh terms, that
would almost cover the cost of the support that Lifeline
gave Jared. And it's just built. I only put that
initial post up Sunday week ago, and it's had three
thousand views since we started the page. There's one hundred
(16:46):
and fifty people have already contacted to say that they'll
be walking. There's a bus load of people coming from Sydney,
some people from Tamworth, and I'm hearing from Jared's mining
friends that they're going to be coming from Mud and
Gunnadhar and other places as well. So it just you
(17:06):
feel useless. You feel as though you've lost that person
that you fought so hard for for so long. And
I'm looking at a photo of Jared here, but I
just know that his blue eyes would be sparkling, going wow, Mum,
look at all of these people. It just would be
a fabulous thing. So that's how it came about.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So it's on Tuesday, the tenth of September, commencing at
ten o'clock. As you said, the Aberdeen Sport and Rec
Center and that walk it's yeah, quite an easy walk
in that sort of area. How long is it?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
The total distance that we've mapped out is nine kilometers exactly. However,
all around the track there are going to be markers
where if you want to only walk one kilometer, you
can turn around at the five hundred meters mark and
turn back, or you can keep going a little bit further.
(18:02):
There is going to be a courtesy bus running around
all the whole time to pick people up to drop
water off.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Did you know I was kind of walking this.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yes, but people are also I had one lady reach
out last night and say that she couldn't walk, but
could she just come and sit and just enjoy the day.
So if anybody would like to come and sit under
a shelter and bring their folding chairs and just be
part of what I hope will be a really gentle
(18:34):
and happy day. There's no people can run it, people
can crawl it, they can just do anything they want.
But it's just if I can share a very lovely story.
A local family who recently lost their special person to
suicide reached out to say that they're bringing a family
(18:56):
group and that they want to walk together a way
of celebrating it and remembering their loved one. And I
would love to think that anybody who doesn't know what
to do or how to react might just think, well,
let's go for a walk, and let's wear something bright
and blue and just be together for a few hours.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Now. There's no cost, but you're asking for a donation obviously,
to help go towards helping Lifeline do the great work
that they do.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So what's involved that Simply, as you said, we're not
expecting anybody to donate money. First and foremost, it's just
about walking and talking and celebrating and loving and remembering
the lives of those people who we've lost. And maybe
if somebody is working with or helping somebody who is
(19:53):
feeling suicidal, for them to come along and talk to
others as well would be really good. My idea of
just asking for a nine dollar donation if anybody would
like to make. That is to celebrate Jared's nine for
nine walk. But the reason that it's called that is
because we're officially making it a nine kilometer walk for
(20:16):
the nine people who currently actually commit suicide in Australia
every day. Those figures are going to rise again, I
believe in the next round of research that's done, but
currently we lose nine wonderful Australians every day, and so
the idea of nine dollars just means remembering and celebrating
(20:38):
those nine people.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Putting on a sausage Seesle and I have some cool
drinks and stuff there as well.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Absolutely that's being organized at the moment, but it is
definitely going to happen, and for those people that would
like there is also going to be just a very
low key photo boot there so that we can get
some lovely photos of people who've come along on the day.
As I said, family grew, who may be walking for somebody,
they can have a nice photo taken together.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
As we heard. Kate has been overwhelmed by the response
so far. She says, while it's not necessary, it would
be great for those wanting to attend to register beforehand.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
They can register if they'd like just by going. We
have a Facebook page called Jared's nine for nine Walk.
It's a public group. If people would like to go there,
they can find out all of the information on that
Facebook page. There is a donation page where you can
also register your name to be part of the walk. However,
(21:40):
if you decide on the morning or the night before
that you just like to come along, we'll have registration
pages there, not for any purpose other than for insurance
and just to make sure. One thing that some people
do worry about, understandably is insurance and public liability, and
that's completely covered by Lifeline. And also the Upper Hunter
(22:04):
Shy Council is providing great support in helping to plan
the day as well. So I've been very grateful for
those two organizations.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Jared's Nine for nine is on Tuesday, September ten, which
is also World Suicide Prevention Day. While it's Kate's wish
for as many locals as possible to be part of
her special event, what she really wants to come out
of it is this, If you or anyone you know
is experiencing a mental health crisis, do something about it.
(22:35):
Talk to a relative, talk to a mate, or chat
with a stranger. Please don't become one of the nine
people a day in Australia that feels so hopeless. There's
only one tragic option. Help is out there. Twenty four
to seven. That's all for this episode of iHeart Upper Hunter.
I know it's been hard listening at times. I'm Darren
(22:57):
KATRUPI catch you next time. I heard Albahanta
I Heeart Abba Hunter. Hello, I'm Darren Katrupe. We need
to begin with a warning that this episode contains a
detailed and frank discussion about suicide a mother's tragic loss
of a son. Should this podcast raise any issues for you,
there is help available twenty four to seven through Lifeline.
(00:22):
You can call them on thirteen eleven fourteen, text them
on zero four seven seven thirteen eleven fourteen, or reach
out online via the Lifeline website which is lifeline dot
org dot au. My guest today is Kate Jones. Kate
is a former school principal and a policeman's wife, and
(00:43):
many listening will know her well or know of the family.
Kate has decided to somehow try and turn the tragic
death of their son, Jared, who took his own life
in December last year, into an opportunity to help others
process the depth of their greed and also identify key
indicators that someone you love may be suffering.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Jared Stephen Jones an absolutely wonderful young man. I came
into Jared's life when he was eighteen months old. His
dad was raising Jared and his sister, and Steve and
I found each other and ended up marrying, so I
became I guess Jared's day to day mum when he
was four years old. I over the years obtained the
(01:29):
name the old Chuk, so I guess that makes me
mum in a roundabout way. Jared was a very talented
young sportsman. He held a national swimming record, was a
great cricketer, AFL footballer. Didn't like school so much, but
loved the social side of school. He obtained an apprenticeship
(01:50):
with Camatsu when he was sixteen and just love mining
until the day that we lost him. Mining was his
love in his life, the friendships, he loved, the hard
work that went with it. He loved coming home covered
in dirt and having done a really hard day's work. Unfortunately,
when he was about sixteen, he sustained a nasty head
(02:14):
injury in a motorbike accident, and I guess that's when
things started to change. Mental health started interspersing with a
really good life and he continued to live a really
successful life. He moved up through the ranks as a
(02:35):
mining supervisor. He is very well known through many of
the local minds. He was engaged to be married and
we all spent lots of time together as a family.
The last ten years, I guess were his most difficult.
(02:55):
He continued to the outside world to largely a happy
life and a busy life, but his dad and I
spent a lot of time with him behind the scenes,
helping trying to get him support. He had a couple
of very close colleagues in the mining industry who to
(03:17):
this day have now become my dear mates, and they
never once gave up on Jared, and it's probably full
credit to them that he stayed with us as long
as he did. He was just a fine, lovable young
man who loved dogs, loved his family, just to the
(03:39):
outside world, loved life.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Kate Jones thinks a succession of sports related brain injuries
played a privotal role in Jared's mental health decline in
later years, something that never occurred to them when he
first came off a motorbike as a teenager.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
No, mental health didn't even enter our mind. We did
very carefully follow the brain injury path. Jared was transferred
to John Hunter Hospital and they were wonderful. But when
you look back twenty years ago to where things are
with brain injuries and mental health now, we were all
(04:18):
very naive and you know, the treatment was to have
regular appointments, but to just get on with life. But
his dad, Steve and I noticed that little things changed,
like he had been a fantastic bowler in cricket and
you know, was looking at representing the district and the region,
(04:39):
and all of a sudden someone would throw him the
ball and he couldn't catch it, he'd drop it. But
we were given the advice that he would continue to
improve over time. My husband took over coaching the Musclebrook
Cat's AFL side, and Jared transferred his love of motorbike
riding to AFL football. And we believe that there were
(05:04):
probably a number of more concussions over the years which
didn't help that initial brain injury. But we as the
years went by, were beside Jared when he went through
a lot of mental health issues. And it's still being
investigated as to whether his mental health issues had anything
(05:24):
to do with the brain injury or whether his mental
health issues stemmed from something else.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Well, that'll be left up to the coroner to decide
in their due course. When was it that mental health
sort of vil armed bills about mental health issues as
a result of these concussions sort of started coming into
you and Steve's mind.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In hindsight, it's very hard to find a time. Jared
was in a very committed relationship from a young age
for approximately ten years, and I think because he had
that security of a great relationship and his fat both
families we were all very close. But after that relationship ended,
(06:13):
we noticed that alcohol. Jared would start using alcohol or
would start taking more risky behaviors, not doing illegal things
or dishonest things, but just something as simple as doing
a burnout in his car when he'd be leaving, and
I know that's something that all young men like to do.
But increasing behaviors like that, or his anger. He'd never
(06:38):
been an angry boy, but the older that he got
in his mid twenties, he would become angry just at
the click of a finger.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
He wouldn't have dared do something illegal.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
No, although that sometimes is the reason to try things out,
just to see how far dad will let it go.
But in Jared's last three weeks, we had some laughs
about him being chased off the Aberdeen Common by his
very own dad in a police car. Steve loved his
children so dearly, but he also was a really tough
(07:11):
down the line cop, So they were some of Jared's
funny memories being tailed by his dad. It was never
anything dishonest, but he was always pushing the boundaries just
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Kate says, while revelations of Jared's dark thoughts came as
a complete surprise, he battled on with him for many
years before it all became too much.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Jared started speaking about wanting to commit suicide after a
breakup with another girl he loved. I want to say
this in the nicest of ways. Jared loved being in
a relationship and he loved being kind to his partner.
He just to him, having a girlfriend that he could
(07:57):
do things with and enjoy time with was one wonderful
But he had a particularly nasty breakup with a lovely girl.
But the breakup came about because of Jared's behavior, and
his girlfriend at the time decided to be honest with us,
and that was really the first that it came to
(08:20):
our attention. Jared had indicated to his dad a couple
of times that he was going to in inverted Comma's
neck himself because he just couldn't cope with what was
going on, and Steve took him to see a doctor,
and the doctor prescribed some medication which low level, and
(08:45):
things seemed to go on. But then one Saturday night,
Steve was a policeman, so understandably, when the ambulance officers
got called to Jared's home, one of them phoned Steve
and Jared had made that was a very close suicide attempt.
(09:05):
That was the first attempt that he'd made. He'd spoken
about it a lot, he was using alcohol very heavily,
but the ambulance officers told us that night that he
was within ten seconds of losing his life. And basically
from then on life never never in any way returned
(09:25):
to normal.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
If you're distressed in any way by this conversation, or
you just have feelings that you're not comfortable with at
this time or from time to time, that there is
help there twenty four to seven through Lifeline, they do
a wonderful job, whether you call them on thirteen eleven
fourteen or go to lifeline dot org dot au. And
(09:49):
they even have a text back service. If you're not
comfortable talking to a stranger, then you can just text
if text is more your thing, and I've got to
say that's with a lot more common these days in
the conversations I have with people at Lifeline, but I'm
a bit old fashioned. I'd rather talk on old dog
and bone. But there are all sorts of ways to
(10:13):
reach out and see KELP. So please don't ever feel alone.
You can. You can access help twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week if you're not comfortable with speaking
with friends or family or whatever. The hardest part of
this conversation, not just for you, but for me, is
(10:33):
what happened. Eventually Jared came home to you, and it
wasn't that long before he left us.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
No excuse me if I do get emotional, but I
Jared had complex issues before Christmas, which are part of
the coronial investigation, so I won't discuss that in any way.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But this is Christmas last year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Christmas twenty twenty three, and he reached out to me
and said, Mom, I need to come home. And I guess,
while it's the saddest thing, it's also one of the
proudest moments of my life because we lost Steve's dad
not even two years earlier, accidentally, and I was just
(11:25):
proud that Jared wanted to come home to the old chalk.
I remember the phone call saying, Mom, can I just
come home? I need some old chalok time. That was
what he used to call me, and putting it in
practical terms, that's what I was. I was just the
old chook that was there when he needed someone. He
came home on the sixth of January, and I thought
(11:48):
that I had become very attuned to Jared's suicidal thoughts,
to signs that he was headed downwards. This time, we
were making plans, We were moving forward, We were literally
(12:11):
moving ahead with life and making decisions about his future.
My mum was ill over at tire and I went
away for thirty six hours, and Jared continued texting and
calling me as we always had done. Little quirks like
if Jared didn't feel like talking, we had an agreement
that he would send me a full stop, just a
(12:33):
full stop, because then I would know that he was breathing,
that he was upright, and that things were okay. On
the Sunday night, and I am being very raw because
I want people who have gone through similar things to
know that it's okay to talk about it. He was
going to bed at eight thirty four every night. He
(12:56):
would look at his clock and say it's time to
get ready for bed. And on the Sunday night I
received the usual message saying night Mum, love you, see
you tomorrow, and I would always message back and say
good night my boy, love you too. Um. He never
would respond after that, but on the Sunday night he
responded back and said see you tomorrow, and I just
(13:19):
sent back two kisses. I thought he must be feeling
really good because he's instead of cutting off it that
love you mate. He sent me another message back last
thing I ever heard. Ten minutes after he sent me
that message, the CCTV at home shows him quietly leaving
(13:42):
home and heading out to the space where he'd chosen
to end his life.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Stay with us on iHeart Upper Hunter, we get to
how some late night scowling across social media caused Kate's
focus to shift a ways of helping others save lives
their loved ones. I Heart aper Hunter, I Heart aper Hunter.
(14:11):
I'm Darren Katrubi continuing our conversation with Aberdeen's Kate Jones,
who lost her son Jared to suicide eight months ago.
While the pain of Jared's loss is still very raw
for Kate to speak about, she wants to ease her
own heartache by doing something to help others process what
can be a death that leads to so many unanswered questions.
(14:35):
She also wants to connect others to the expertise available
to help a son, daughter, mother, father, or friend who
is feeling just so hopeless. In a few weeks time,
Kate will hold a special event at the Aberdeen Sports
and Recreation Club and adjacent golf course, the inaugural Jared's
(14:56):
nine for nine.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I was scrolling through Facebook at two o'clock one morning
when I couldn't sleep, yeah, as you do, and saw
the simple lifeline message out of the Shadows come up,
and I thought, you know what. My first thought was
the Aberdeen golf course and around the river would just
be a beautiful place for a few of Jared's friends
(15:18):
to go for a walk. So I spoke to a
couple of his close mining colleagues as well as a
friend of his here in Musclebrook, and they said, oh, yes,
we'll come along. And I thought it would just be
nice to give it a name that reflected Jared and
that made it human for other people who perhaps had
(15:40):
children who were going through the same thing, or family
members or friends that they had lost, and so I
put up a simple post on my Facebook page and
had over two hundred responses within twelve hours, and I
just thought, maybe I can do something thing here to
(16:01):
recognize Jared most importantly of course, but reading about Lifeline
and it officially costs thirty one dollars ninety for each
call that a Lifeline person takes, and I thought, well,
even if we could just make three hundred dollars, that
(16:23):
would almost that would cover, in very harsh terms, that
would almost cover the cost of the support that Lifeline
gave Jared. And it's just built. I only put that
initial post up Sunday week ago, and it's had three
thousand views since we started the page. There's one hundred
(16:46):
and fifty people have already contacted to say that they'll
be walking. There's a bus load of people coming from Sydney,
some people from Tamworth, and I'm hearing from Jared's mining
friends that they're going to be coming from Mud and
Gunnadhar and other places as well. So it just you
(17:06):
feel useless. You feel as though you've lost that person
that you fought so hard for for so long. And
I'm looking at a photo of Jared here, but I
just know that his blue eyes would be sparkling, going wow, Mum,
look at all of these people. It just would be
a fabulous thing. So that's how it came about.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So it's on Tuesday, the tenth of September, commencing at
ten o'clock. As you said, the Aberdeen Sport and Rec
Center and that walk it's yeah, quite an easy walk
in that sort of area. How long is it?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
The total distance that we've mapped out is nine kilometers exactly. However,
all around the track there are going to be markers
where if you want to only walk one kilometer, you
can turn around at the five hundred meters mark and
turn back, or you can keep going a little bit further.
(18:02):
There is going to be a courtesy bus running around
all the whole time to pick people up to drop
water off.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Did you know I was kind of walking this.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yes, but people are also I had one lady reach
out last night and say that she couldn't walk, but
could she just come and sit and just enjoy the day.
So if anybody would like to come and sit under
a shelter and bring their folding chairs and just be
part of what I hope will be a really gentle
(18:34):
and happy day. There's no people can run it, people
can crawl it, they can just do anything they want.
But it's just if I can share a very lovely story.
A local family who recently lost their special person to
suicide reached out to say that they're bringing a family
(18:56):
group and that they want to walk together a way
of celebrating it and remembering their loved one. And I
would love to think that anybody who doesn't know what
to do or how to react might just think, well,
let's go for a walk, and let's wear something bright
and blue and just be together for a few hours.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Now. There's no cost, but you're asking for a donation obviously,
to help go towards helping Lifeline do the great work
that they do.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So what's involved that Simply, as you said, we're not
expecting anybody to donate money. First and foremost, it's just
about walking and talking and celebrating and loving and remembering
the lives of those people who we've lost. And maybe
if somebody is working with or helping somebody who is
(19:53):
feeling suicidal, for them to come along and talk to
others as well would be really good. My idea of
just asking for a nine dollar donation if anybody would
like to make. That is to celebrate Jared's nine for
nine walk. But the reason that it's called that is
because we're officially making it a nine kilometer walk for
(20:16):
the nine people who currently actually commit suicide in Australia
every day. Those figures are going to rise again, I
believe in the next round of research that's done, but
currently we lose nine wonderful Australians every day, and so
the idea of nine dollars just means remembering and celebrating
(20:38):
those nine people.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Putting on a sausage Seesle and I have some cool
drinks and stuff there as well.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Absolutely that's being organized at the moment, but it is
definitely going to happen, and for those people that would
like there is also going to be just a very
low key photo boot there so that we can get
some lovely photos of people who've come along on the day.
As I said, family grew, who may be walking for somebody,
they can have a nice photo taken together.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
As we heard. Kate has been overwhelmed by the response
so far. She says, while it's not necessary, it would
be great for those wanting to attend to register beforehand.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
They can register if they'd like just by going. We
have a Facebook page called Jared's nine for nine Walk.
It's a public group. If people would like to go there,
they can find out all of the information on that
Facebook page. There is a donation page where you can
also register your name to be part of the walk. However,
(21:40):
if you decide on the morning or the night before
that you just like to come along, we'll have registration
pages there, not for any purpose other than for insurance
and just to make sure. One thing that some people
do worry about, understandably is insurance and public liability, and
that's completely covered by Lifeline. And also the Upper Hunter
(22:04):
Shy Council is providing great support in helping to plan
the day as well. So I've been very grateful for
those two organizations.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Jared's Nine for nine is on Tuesday, September ten, which
is also World Suicide Prevention Day. While it's Kate's wish
for as many locals as possible to be part of
her special event, what she really wants to come out
of it is this, If you or anyone you know
is experiencing a mental health crisis, do something about it.
(22:35):
Talk to a relative, talk to a mate, or chat
with a stranger. Please don't become one of the nine
people a day in Australia that feels so hopeless. There's
only one tragic option. Help is out there. Twenty four
to seven. That's all for this episode of iHeart Upper Hunter.
I know it's been hard listening at times. I'm Darren
(22:57):
KATRUPI catch you next time. I heard Albahanta
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