ANZAC Day long weekend will be an especially important reflective time for the Shanahan family this year and one they hope will mean a lot to other veteran families in Ballarat.
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The annual Ballarat Walking Off the War Within event has been locked in for April 24. This is a chance to walk in support for defence and emergency services personnel a day before Anzac commemorative services.
It has been a long, tough year limited Walking Off the War events, due to the pandemic, after campaigns across the nation had been building on momentum to raise mental health awareness for frontline families.
It's terribly important to us as a family, and others as a family, to see change
- John Shanahan
Mr Shanahan said gradually these events, in his son Nathan Shanahan's legacy, were "making in-roads" to earning recognition and changing, saving, lives.
He can gauge this in the improved access to psychology services he hears about on Walking Off the War events, and in the people who walk by his family and share their stories.
This was also why Mr Shanahan knew it was important to build that momentum back.
"It's terribly important to us as a family, and others as a family, to see change," Mr Shanahan.
Walking Off the War Within follows in the footsteps of former special forces soldier and firefighter Nathan Shanahan, who walked solo from Mildura to Adelaide six years ago to champion better mental health support as he faced his own war within.
Nathan Shanahan took his own life in December 2016.
Four years on, the multi-state event will launch in Brisbane for the first time this Saturday.
This follows the opening walk, last Saturday, in Mildura where Nathan Shanahan's young family is based. Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp was in attendance.
Mr Shanahan said his wife had one young man, aged about 21, ask to walk beside her. The young man started to share the story of how he lost one of his best mates to suicide. The man carried a big pack, in the tradition of Nathan Shanahan, and this weight started to take a physical toll as the event wore on but everyone about kept cheering the young man along.
A key feature of the family-friendly Walking Off the War Within events is to know you are not alone. Mr Shanahan could hardly wait to put this back in action in his son's home town.
Walking Off the War Within will return to a two-kilometre course based at St Patrick's College on April 24. People are encouraged to walk as little or as much of 20km as they like. More details: walkoffww.com.
- Veterans' support: Open Arms 1800 011 046. Crisis support, Lifeline 13 11 14.
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