After losing his brother to suicide almost 30 years ago, veteran journalist Kerry O'Brien will share his story with a community that comes together every year to shine a light on mental health.
O'Brien's younger brother Paul took his own life at the age of 40 after suffering from mental illness and a rare condition called aplastic anemia.
"Paul was born on my seventh birthday, so we had the same brotherly connection as any other, I guess," O'Brien said.
The 75-year-old said Paul was the child his family "hadn't expected".
"Mum and dad thought I was their last child and Paul came along seven years later unexpectedly, so there was something special about that particularly in my mum's eyes," O'Brien said.
"But as Paul grew and became an adult, we developed a realisation that all was not well with him — he found it hard to settle and he was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia."
He later developed aplastic anemia, a rare disorder that attacks the white blood cells.
Paul required a bone marrow transplant "essentially to save him".
O'Brien and his siblings were tested but were not compatible.
"We knew the odds of him finding a donor outside of that immediate family that was compatible was very much an outside chance," he said.
"It was in that context that Paul became increasingly paranoid and eventually took his own life.
"It was very hard to process, and I suppose whatever grief I felt was compounded mightily, just by the sight of my parents trying to process it.
'Common point of suffering'
Every year since 2013 the Albury community unites for the winter solstice to "shine a light on the darkest night".
This year O'Brien will be among the guest speakers, which will also include federal Labor MP Linda Burney, as well as former lawyer Georgie Dent, who is now a women's advocate and journalist.
"I think that mental health issues have always, and always will, I suspect, deserve more attention than they get," O'Brien said.
The aim of the event is to bring the subject of suicide and mental illness into the public forum to be addressed without shame or stigma.
"I remember the stigma there was about mental illness when I first started as a journalist more than 50 years ago," O'Brien said.
"I did a lot of mental health stories over the years, including the period where in Australia mental health was treated institutionally … where the frontline treatment was one of sedating people with mental illness in institutions as a first course, to make it easier."
O'Brien praised the efforts of the Albury and Wodonga communities.
"I'm enormously impressed by the way this community has come together recognising a common point of suffering, if you like," he said.
"It is very much about compassion and very much about people in the community reaching out to each other and in a way they're going against the societal trend.
"Because sadly and unfortunately and dangerously I think the world is becoming a much more polarised place and people are finding it harder to talk to each other across their divides of difference."
Light to shine again
The Albury Wodonga Winter Solstice was started by the founders of Survivors of Suicide and Friends, Annette and Stuart Baker.
The Bakers lost their 15-year-old daughter Mary to suicide in March 2011 and have since worked tirelessly to raise awareness about mental health.
They said they are thrilled the event, which was held online last year, can return to its physical format this year.
"After 2020, we didn't want geographical boundaries getting in the way of sharing our Winter Solstice far and wide," Ms Baker said.
"So the event will again be live-streamed this year."
