When George Henderson's doctor asked how he was going, the farmer automatically responded "good thanks".
The doctor stopped Mr Henderson, told him to look at his surroundings and acknowledge he was far from good.
The NSW southern tablelands grazier was in hospital receiving treatment for depression, a condition he had lived with since his teens.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Hand To The Land (@handtothelandinitiative)
His wife Lan said the doctor's observation, along with reassurance Mr Henderson would get better, was a huge turning point.
"That was the biggest thing to have ... a doctor who was probably a similar age and another man ... saying basically, 'It's OK if you're not good but we're here and we've got you'," Mrs Henderson said.
Mr Henderson had initially given himself a tight deadline to get better, knowing there was farm work to be done at home.
"As a man, it's hard to put yourself in a vulnerable situation," he said.
The Hendersons shared their story in a moving online video that has struck a chord with hundreds of thousands of people across Australia.
The video supports the work of Hand to the Land, an initiative that runs in partnership with the Country Education Foundation to fund scholarships for rural students studying psychology and allied health-related fields.
The organisation also provides wellbeing support for scholarship recipients and mental health first aid training in rural communities.
The work honours the memory of long-time foundation board member Katie Walker's daughter Jessica, who died by suicide in 2003.
Shared widely, the Hendersons' story has sparked awareness of both the stigma surrounding mental health and difficulties accessing care in rural areas.
"There are lots of challenges that are made more extreme in regional and rural areas," foundation deputy chair Peita Burton Taylor told AAP.
"That it's not widely accepted and talked about is the first barrier and then it goes into all the systematic barriers that rural people face, like distance, availability, can they leave their farm and livestock?"
The suicide rate for males in remote Australia was more than double that of their city peers in the three years to 2024, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
At the same time, there are far fewer GPs and specialists and long waiting lists in the public system.
The shortage of services in the bush is one reason Mr Henderson told his story.
"For so many people in so much of Australia, it could be hundreds of kays, could be a whole day's drive to get to these services," he said.
"A lot of men, particularly, are probably likely to think, 'I can't take that much time off work'.
"If we could get more of these mental health professionals in country towns, it could have a big impact in driving down suicides in rural men and women."
The foundation hopes supporting rural students qualify in mental health-related fields will help achieve that goal, Ms Burton Taylor said.
"Ideally, we're helping bring these students back to the rural and regional communities with those skills," she said.
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