Award spans years of help

After the deaths of her children Angela and Stuart by suicide in 2002, Alannah McGregor made a choice.

“I am not going to be a victim of this,” she decided.

“I am going to turn it around.”

About fourteen years later, she feels she has turned an awful situation into one that might be able to change other people’s lives. 

On Saturday, Mrs McGregor will be among six recipients of inaugural Bendigo Women’s Community Achievement Awards.

She started doing voluntary work in suicide prevention about two years after Angela and Stuart died. 

Mrs McGregor volunteered for GriefWorks, a bereavement resource for education and support that helped her for several years after the loss of her children. 

She then became a driving force for the first Suicide Prevention Awareness Network walk in Bendigo, held in 2011. 

There have been five successful walks to date, which help raise awareness of suicide and reduce the associated stigma. 

Mrs McGregor said the work of SPAN helped bring the StandBy Response Service to Bendigo.

StandBy is a federally funded, community-based suicide post-vention program, which supports and assists people who have been bereaved through suicide. 

It was developed by United Synergies in 2002 and includes a 24-hour crisis response telephone number.

People can also receive face-to-face support or be referred to a service suitable for their needs. 

Mrs McGregor is a member of the StandBy steering committee.

She volunteers as a lived experience speaker for Suicide Prevention Australia and is a support facilitator for Compassionate Friends, which supports families after the death of a child.

“I would like to say thank-you to my husband Ray, my daughter Stacey and granddaughter Tayah,” Mrs McGregor said.

“I know it has been hard for them for me to be so public about Angela and Stuart’s deaths – despite that, they have been very supportive.”

She said she was persuaded to accept the award by the SPAN committee, partly because it would help promote suicide prevention.

“I am really honoured, but I also feel there are so many people who do so much around Bendigo,” she said.

“The SPAN walk is a group thing – we all work just as hard.”

The inaugural Bendigo Women’s Community Achievement Awards will be presented at Bendigo Ladies Day Out on Saturday at Bendigo Stadium. 

The event is also a fundraiser for the Annie North Women’s Crisis Refuge Centre.

Tickets are $75 and are available from Bendigo Stadium by calling 5440 6200.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a difficult time, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.