According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, that is how many people took their own lives in Australia in 2013.

In 2010, there were 2361. The numbers continue to rise. ABS statistics show suicide accounts for only 1.7 per cent of deaths in Australia, but it accounts for a greater proportion of deaths from all causes within specific age groups.

To explain, 34.8 per cent of teenage boys and 26 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 who died in 2013, took their own lives.

Almost three quarters of people who died by suicide in 2013 were male, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death for males. 

While we should never use statistics about suicide to be alarmist, we should be concerned by these numbers.

Yet no one wants to talk about it. As Alannah McGregor bravely says in today’s Bendigo Advertiser, too many people continue to judge. No one understands suicide.

Alannah knows only too well why we should be talking about it, having lost two children to suicide in 2002 – and then, enduring years of judgement, questions, gossip and speculation.

She writes today: “My neighbour was asked, ‘you live next door to them, what kind of people are they? He answered, ‘they are normal people, just like you and me.’

“The assumptions that we were to blame or that we did not do the right thing is something we did not need or deserve at that time.”

A driving force behind the suicide prevention awareness walk in Bendigo later this month, Alannah shares her story in the hope others will try to understand.

So too, does Lynsey Ward. Lynsey’s brother took his own life and she is now driven to support others who live through the same experience. “I believe we can create a change in the number of people feeling disconnected, unwell or suicidal,’’ she said.

It is important that as a community we do not look to blame others after someone we know or love dies from suicide. We need to listen to them, and learn.

It’s because of Alannah, and Lynsey, and the many other families who have been touched by suicide, that the Bendigo Advertiser continues to support the Suicide Prevention Awareness Network. 

It is because of them. And for them.

Nicole Ferrie, editor

RELATED: Sharing Liam’s legacy: Family of people who suicide need more support, survivor says.