Beyond Kokoda started out as an adventure for just one person and has grown to a team who will take on the Kokoda trail to help raise awareness of mental health, remove the sigma and raise funds for Lifeline Canberra.

In early 2019, I nearly lost young colleague of mine to suicide and was faced with the reality of another who once was on that same path. Those 2 days changed my life and my prospective on mental health.
 
Those days still haunts me even though I am one of the lucky ones who still gets to see them smile as they were not taken by suicide.

Approximately 1 in 5 Australians will experience a mental illness each year – that’s 20% of the population. In Canberra, we lose one person a week to suicide and for every death, it’s estimated that as many as 30 people intend to end their lives.

Lifeline Canberra has been responsible for taking 31,467 life changing calls, creating 2,282 safety plans for people at risk all within approximately 14,130 hours!

We want to help Lifeline Canberra do all this amazing work and all funds raised by this adventure will stay local and help more locals.