'My youngest sister was cutting herself. So I made her run.'

by MELINDA HIATT

I still remember the first time mum told me my youngest sister Courtney was cutting herself.  I was pretty shocked and a little puzzled about why she would be doing such a thing.

I am the eldest of three girls and Courtney is 13 years younger than me.  I was at her birth and even cut her umbilical cord so to think of this beautiful baby and gorgeous toddler as a troubled teenager was something I would never have expected.

It seemed to me at the time that the source of the self-harming was never really addressed.  The school counsellor was advised and everyone was keeping an ‘eye’ on things.  We tried to speak with Courtney and she never opened up about what was going on for her.

About a year passed and then mum called to tell me Courtney was in hospital having overdosed.  Not only had she been rushed to emergency, but she was transferred to the psychiatric ward at the Royal Children’s hospital.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I went to visit her that night.  In a previous career I had experienced dealing with mentally ill people regularly.  This was really different though – this was my baby sister.

The visit itself was fairly uneventful and there wasn’t a lot of discussion between my mum and sisters.  It was really hard to understand where this had all come from.  I had a few more visits over the next couple of weeks as did my other sister and parents as the hospital staff worked with her to support her through what we came to know as her depression.

I was able to share with Courtney through this time how running had been a way for me to overcome stress and down days in the past.  Running had led me to the most amazing and beautiful group of friends who inspired me to take on my passion for health and fitness and take on a complete career change.

Courtney started training with my training group on a weekly basis which I think was quite hard for her.  First of all she had to get up extra early to train on a Saturday morning – this already goes against the grain for teenagers! Secondly, I specialise in group personal training so she really had to step up and interact within the group.

I admire her for being brave and sticking with the weekly training.  She has her down days but at least she comes and the group has been so beautiful and accepting of her regardless of the day she is having.  I really do appreciate the wonderful people I train as well, they are ever inspiring.

In early 2013 I was inspired to create a community project to support young people through mental illness.  In researching what support was available for young people I was really confronted to find that suicide is the leading cause of death amongst young Australians and that 1 in 4 young Australians are diagnosed with mental illness.

headspace, the National Youth Mental Health foundation is a world-first initiative that fills the gap in the mental health system by treating young people who have mild to moderate mental health issues.  By catching problems early, headspace can help prevent them from becoming more serious and longer lasting.

I have created a unqiue event that will capture all the best bits about what I do for a job and support headspace through raising awareness and funds to facilitate healthy living programs to be run from their drop in centres.

Train For Thought, is going to be the largest group personal training session to be held at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday May 19.  For $25 participants will receive an hour group personal training session and contribute directly to headspace.  People of all ages and fitness levels are invited to participate.

I am looking for 200 leaders in fitness to step up and volunteer their time to train at this event.  This is a real opportunity to show the community that personal trainers and indeed the industry are committed to the health of our nation.

We are also looking for 2000 participants to come and be trained on the day! It’s going to be a really fun, energetic event and all you need to bring is yourself, a mat or towel and water bottle.  You can register yourself or a team at www.trainforthought.com.au