FROM the outside looking in, Kaleb Paten seemed to be living the dream.
He was young, ambitious, and he had a thriving business. He had a heap of friends, a busy social life.
He was running ultra marathons.
"But behind the scenes I was absolutely struggling," Mr Paten, 22, said. "I felt like I always had this mask on."
Mr Paten said he had started spending more and more time at work and little at home.
He started partying, and soon developed a substance abuse problem.
"That got me into a financial hole and the wheels just started falling off," he said.
"I had massive issues with anxiety. I seemed like a very social person, who was always everywhere, but little did they know I had to have a drink or something to help me go out and participate.
"It was a pretty hard spot, but I kept ignoring it. No one had any idea."
But in August, Mr Paten hit his "breaking point". He attempted to take his own life.
"My housemate came home from work unexpectedly and stopped me," he said. "I found that as soon as I started speaking up about everything, the support was immense. That's why it's so incredible what Lifeline does. You can call up and have a chat with someone about everything - which is all you need sometimes."
He met Lyndsay Walker when the two men participated in the Newy100 in January. They were among 16 local runners who helped raise $50,000 for Lifeline.
"This weekend is a continuation of what I like to do to keep me mentally strong," Mr Paten said. "Running has been a saviour."
On Saturday at 2am, they will set out to run around Lake Macquarie and into Lifeline Newcastle - about 105 kilometres in total.
"Since coming back to Newcastle after living all over the world with cricket - I started doing different physical events to promote mental health," Mr Walker said.
"I did 52,000 Merewether stairs for Soldier On a while back, I did some work for Soul Cafe... I've since done 100,000 Merewether stairs on my own, I ran up Strezlecki in March. And through doing these events, I found a lot of people started to approach me with their mental health stories and struggles."
It inspired him to take his support for Lifeline a step further. He has begun a crisis support course.
"I'll be on the phones shortly, taking calls," he said. "Given I was being approached by so many people, I wanted to get some proper training to equip myself to help them, and be more accountable. Lifeline gets about 3000 calls a day now. I thought an extra volunteer might help them help more people."
Lifeline: 13 11 14.
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