Warning: This post contains mentions of suicide and may be triggering for some readers.
It’s been 10 years since Gavin Larkin came up with the idea for R U OK? Day. Sadly, Larkin himself only lived to see the first three R U OK? Days. But his legacy lives on, sparking millions of conversations aimed at preventing suicides each year.
Just over a decade ago, Larkin looked to have everything anyone could want: a successful career in advertising, a wonderful wife, Maryanne, and three beautiful children, Gus, Josie and Van. He knew he should have been feeling “on top of the world”, but he wasn’t.
“I felt empty, I felt black and it really scared me,” Larkin told Australian Story, “and I started to worry that I might do what my father did, which was take his own life.”
Watch: This September 12, take the time to ask yourself and your friends this question: R U OK?
Larkin’s father Barry had died by suicide in 1995. He’d had a successful career and a loving family, but in the last few years of his life, he’d become withdrawn and isolated. He didn’t tell anyone about his mental illness.
Top Comments
Lymphoma isn't the same as "bone cancer". What you are describing is likely lymphoma infiltrating the bones (not unlike, for example, breast cancer metastasising to the liver - it's still breast cancer, not liver cancer). Health literacy matters. Please tell this man's story accurately.