Eloise Jackson

Support My Walk for Mental Health Research

Did you know that 1 in 5 Australians experience a mental illness each year?

This October I’m doing One Foot Forward for the Black Dog Institute, and for anyone who knows me, you’ll know why this means so much to me. Mental health isn’t just something I care about because of the work I do, it’s something that has been a huge part of my own life too. I know what it’s like when getting through the day feels impossible, when you can’t see the way up or out of the dark cloud, and when simply continuing to put one foot in front of the other takes everything you have.

I’ve also watched some of my nearest and dearest go through their own really hard battles with mental health and suicide. One thing I’ve learnt through my own experiences, the people I love and the work I do is that you genuinely never know what someone is going through behind closed doors. Someone can be working, laughing, showing up and looking completely fine, while privately doing everything they can just to keep themselves together.

Through my work in mental health, I sit with people in some of the hardest and most vulnerable moments of their lives. I see how much people can carry quietly, but I also get to see people find hope again, rebuild and come back from places they never thought they would. It’s a constant reminder that support matters, kindness matters, and sometimes having someone there who believes there is a way through can make all the difference.

So I’m walking for myself, for some of my nearest and dearest, for the people I’ve supported through work, for the people quietly fighting battles no one knows about, and for the people who sadly didn’t get to see things get better. If you’re able to donate, it would genuinely mean so much to me 🖤

Because sometimes, all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.