Alannah McGregor has never been ashamed that two of her children died by suicide.
"It's a terrible shame, though, that they thought it was their only option," the Bendigo mum said.
It has been 20 years since her daughter Angela took her own life.
Her son, Stuart, died by suicide the following month.
In the years since her children died, Ms McGregor has devoted her life to suicide prevention initiatives.
She has launched an online fundraising campaign for her local Lifeline centre in honour of Angela and Stuart, to mark their anniversaries.
Turning pain into progress
Angela was 16 years old when she died.
Stuart took his life just weeks later, a month before his 21st birthday.
"The impact from workplace bullying affected my son, and the ongoing impact of that affected all of us to the point that my daughter took her life," Ms McGregor said.
Her son then lost his battle with mental health.
A family of five was reduced to three — Ms McGregor, her husband Ray, and daughter Stacey.
Ms McGregor considers her own survival to be among her greatest achievements in the wake of Angela's and Stuart's deaths.
"I have survived and been able to turn so much pain into a way to reduce stigma, bring the subject of suicide out into the open, and very importantly, use my lived experience to help other families who have gone through a death by suicide," she said.
Ms McGregor was named the Fred Hollows Foundation's first Humanitarian of the Year in 2021 for her work in suicide prevention.
She is also the City of Greater Bendigo's 2022 Citizen of the Year.
Ms McGregor is one of the driving forces behind central Victoria's Suicide Prevention Awareness Network (SPAN).
She is also involved in a number of other suicide prevention initiatives, drawing on her family's experiences to help others.
Ms McGregor said she had been stressing about the 20th anniversaries of Angela's and Stuart's deaths.
"I wanted to find something to do to sort of mark that occasion, as well as make it a positive thing to remember Angela and Stuart," she said.
"It's only a number, but for some reason, a number makes you feel different.
"Once I realised what I was going to do, the weight was lifted off my shoulders."
Campaign a 'relief'
Her MyCause campaign, In Memory of Angela and Stuart McGregor, was launched to coincide with the anniversary of Angela's death, on August 2.
It concludes just after the anniversary of Stuart's death, on September 3.
"It's been a total relief," Ms McGregor said.
The campaign has already smashed its fundraising target of $500.
Lifeline Central Victoria and Mallee has also launched a fundraiser of its own, called Hello for Hope, which is intended to support the centre's growth.
The inaugural event's goal is to raise $35,000 to recruit and train 10 new volunteers to answer calls to Lifeline's 13 11 14 crisis support service.
'Always more work to do'
Ms McGregor said support for people experiencing crisis and mental ill health had changed a lot in the past 20 years.
"There's been so much more openness about people needing help and asking for help," she said.
"There are probably a lot more services available than there were 23 years ago when we needed them.
"GPs are much more open to getting mental health plans for people.
"Of course, there's always more work to do, but if you look back 20 years there are a lot of changes and a lot of improvements."
She hoped that the approach to providing mental health care would be more holistic 20 years from now, and that services would be more readily available when people needed help.
Ms McGregor said she believed openness was vital to advances in suicide prevention.
"That will improve the more that people get rid of the taboo and the stigma around suicide," she said.
"If you get to a problem and try and work on it before it becomes a crisis, you can prevent suicide."
