🎗️
- This is my first year diving
- in for youth mental health
The ad for joining Laps for Life kept popping up on Facebook. I decided to read a bit about it and I’m immediately reminded of the awful truth. The first sentence that I find is ‘the leading cause of death for young people in Australia is suicide.’
I went into a deep dive looking at the history & statistics of suicide and self harm in Australia between 1907-2023 on the Australian institute of health and welfare site. Statistics are the way they are for a multitude of reasons across time, which I won’t delve into, but it just feels so wrong that as a country, as a whole, our countries mental health is so consistently low throughout time, all the way up to now.
I thought about the people in my life who have sought out help for their mental health struggles, those that haven’t made that step yet, and those that are struggling that still might not have seen the signs yet.
I thought about people we’ve lost to suicide.
I thought about how selfish I started to feel every time I scrolled past the ad when the only work this will demand of me is; getting up early, pushing myself to swim some laps (albeit more than I have done in a long time), getting to the pool after school & hopefully attracting some attention that people will donate. That’s easy. The hard part is what our young people of our country are going through, and have been going through, throughout history in Australia.
This March, I'm swimming to try to make sure young people in Australia have the mental health support they urgently need.
By sponsoring my challenge, you’ll be helping to prevent youth suicide.
My Swim Progress
I've swum
20.20km (0 laps)
My Goal
20km
How do you compare to other participants?
Average Distance Swum: 9m
Average Distance Goal: 16KM
My Impact
So far this year I helped provide...
278
Young people with vital mental health support.
Fundraising Progress
Raised
$1111
My Goal
$1,100
So far, you’ve raised 101% of your fundraising goal!
Raised
$0
My Team Goal
$0
So far, you’ve raised nan% of your fundraising goal!
Raised
$3,656,899
All Goal
$3,600,000
So far, you’ve raised 102% of your fundraising goal!
Thank you to my Sponsors
$208.60
Penn Built
$64.67
Debbie and Geoff Nayda
$64.67
Anonymous
Good work darl!
$60
Margaret Allanson
Good on you Tara!
$56.24
Aisha Nunn
$56.24
Kate Hansen
$56.24
Kelli and Matt
$56.24
Taneil Nigro
Much love Tarizzle, such a good cause. Go get them laps!
$54.12
Tara Nayda
$54.12
Matched by Reef Shark Foundation
$52
Jacob Nayda
Awesome work Tara!
$50
Anna Trevor Nayda
Onya Tara
$33.15
Bree H
Go girl x
$33.15
Howell Family
Proud of you xx
$33.15
Lynda OGrady
Awesome job Tara
$22.58
Bec Kidman
Smashed it Tara! 🐠🐠
$22.58
Tessa Reid
🤘🏼👏🏽
$22.58
Karen Fraser
Yay Tara, just keep swimming Great cause
$22.58
Courtney Nowak
$22.58
Chloe, Glen & Bailey
Get it girl 💪🏼 proud of you!
$22.58
Justine
Amazing Tara! You get em girl xx
$22.58
Angela Fullerton
$20
Amazing effort raising life changing awareness