He fought hard to raise awareness of post traumatic stress disorder awareness to make a difference in his community and break the stigma that stops so many people from seeking help. 

Nathan, unable to fight the demons that dominated his mind, took his own life in December – but Nathan’s fight for  greater mental health services lives on. 

More than 1000 serving and ex-military personnel, firefighters, police, paramedics, emergency service workers, their families and the community marched as one to Walk Off The War Within.

The inaugural walk co-organised by Ballarat City Firefighter Josh Martin and Mildura firefighter Adam Young promoted a powerful motto – walk as one to share the burden.

Nathan grief-stricken father John Shanahan vowed to publicly advocate for more mental health services days after his son’s suicide.

On Saturday he was awestruck by the turnout and the power of marching in solidarity.

“Nathan’s dark day were our dark days – but his dark days were even darker than ours,” John said.

“At times – as a family member of someone experiencing PTSD – you feel totally helpless.” 

He has backed  National Mental Health Commission’s chief executive officer Peggy Brown’s call to better include families in mental health support programs. 

Dr Brown said rules and regulations – including privacy regulations – sometimes left the family and person feeling forgotten and voiceless.

“We need to focus on hearing the voice of the person and their family. There is a clear message that that’s what could be improve,” Dr Brown said.

John hopes the event will become an annual march highlighting the dearth of services and the urgent need for investment. 

“I’m hoping that through this event people power will cause the politicians to say we can’t neglect this (mental health), they can’t shut it out,” John said.

“The reason there are this many people here today in Ballarat from Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Sydney – the reason is they feel not enough is being done.” 

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the grass-roots organised event was strongly supported by senior emergency services management highlighting the desire of all emergency services workers to place a greater focus on mental well-being. 

“We have had a lot of people attend an event based around an issue that is often not openly talked about,” Mr Lapsley said.

“An event like this brings people together and shoes that from a situation that is extremely sad people had been able to build an opportunity to show that PTSD is an issue of significance.” 

Federal Ballarat MP and Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King said the turnout showed the community was crying out for action on mental health. 

“One (issue) is the co-ordination of services, if you had cancer there is a pathway of services (that a person seeks),” Ms King said.

“Mental health treatment should be in exactly the space – from diagnosis to treatment right through to cure-  right across the country.”

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