A year after Alex Croft's father died by suicide, the then 12-year-old decided to take mental health awareness into his own hands.
"I lost my dad at a young age, that really hurt me deeply," he told the Newcastle Herald.
In 2022, Alex's older brother engaged their school, St Mary's Catholic College Gateshead, in the Push-Up Challenge for mental health.
Four years later, Alex is leading the all-school challenge as a year 11 student.
"I wanted to push for the youth, especially, to speak out, don't hold it in, there's a stigma around young lads, that they need to stay strong and hold it in," Alex said.
A nationwide initiative, the Push-Up Challenge aims to educate people about mental health and raise funds for programs and services through partner organisations including Lifeline and headspace.
The challenge asks individuals or groups to complete 3307 push-ups from June 3 to 26 for the number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2024.
Alex said he struggled with his mental health after his dad's death.
Using services including the Black Dog Institute and the Kids Helpline helped him immensely, he said.
"You don't have to tell everyone but find that person [to tell], it can be a friend, family or a teacher, or even just a notebook," he said.
"Taking your own life is not the way, as someone who has been affected by that, you may not think that there's people out there that love you but there's all your family, friends and community."
Alex said this year's event was probably the best one yet, with more young students involved than ever before.
"It's not weak to show people that you're emotional," he said.
He completed about 20 push-ups despite an injured hand and shoulder, helping the cohort to a total of 9800 during Wednesday's event.
Year 12 college captains Kiara Barr and Brodie Dean said this year's event was more about awareness than fundraising.
"We are just making sure that all the teens at our school know that they have someone to talk to if they need to," Kiara said.
She thought she probably did about 70 push-ups.
"I think it is important to make sure people know that mental illness is so prevalent in teenagers ... people who are struggling need to know that they can reach if they need to," she said.
Brodie said he hoped the day could start conversations within friend groups and hopefully get people talking about it.
"You never know what people are going through," he said.
