Mount Maunganui boxing club owner Brendon Johnston.
Mount Maunganui boxing club owner Brendon Johnston.
Warning: This article discusses suicide. If you need help, contact Lifeline on 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP).
Change your environment, spoil yourself and talk to someone close to you who you trust.
These were the “best” pieces of advice Tauranga man Brendon Johnston received from a Lifeline counsellor when he was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts after his father died in 2016.
“I followed every single one of them and it took some time, but I overcame it,” the 45-year-old said.
The owner of Johnston Boxing Club in Mount Maunganui says he now wakes up every day “excited” to teach boxing.
“I’d give that advice to anyone else that I know that’s struggling.”
Johnston told the Bay of Plenty Times hedonated $2200 to Lifeline after organising a black-tie boxing fundraising event called Fight the Fight: Against Youth Suicides on November 25 at Classic Flyers Aviation Museum.
The Lifeline and Tautoko suicide helplines support an average of 15 to 20 people in New Zealand at high risk of suicide or self-harm every day.
In the 2022/23 financial year, the 20 to 24 age group had the highest rate of suspected self-inflicted deaths in the country with a rate of 20.1 per 100,000 New Zealanders, Te Whatu Ora Health NZ data showed. Suicide rates for Māori tended to be higher.
After Johnston’s father died, he started isolating himself from his friends and family and did not know who to talk to, he said.
“At the time, I wasn’t too sure what I was going through. I didn’t know that it was depression.
“I just felt I needed to talk to someone and take the weight off my shoulders. I felt tired – exhausted. I wanted to stop thinking.”
Johnston thought it would be easier to speak to someone who did not know who he was, so he called Lifeline.
He said a Lifeline counsellor gave him the “three best” pieces of advice: Change his environment, spoil himself, and find someone trusted close to him “to share some of that weight.
“Knowing that there’s someone to turn to like Lifeline when things get on top of you is so important for our young people because a lot of them don’t know how to deal with stress.”
The black-tie boxing fundraising event on November 25 at Classic Flyers Aviation Museum: Boxing match between from Dan Condor (left) and Wayan Epiha.
To change his environment, he left Auckland – accepting a recruitment job in Tauranga – then travelled through South America for a few months.
Johnston said one highlight of his trip from Argentina to Peru was staying with an Argentinian family who helped him practise his Spanish, but his biggest highlight was making it to Macchu Picchu after the “tough hike” on the Inca Trail.
“I met some great people there and that was able to keep my mind off what I was struggling with.”
Johnston said he spoiled himself by buying “a beautiful car”.
He spoke to his sister daily, who understood how he felt and “really helped me out.
“She saved my life.”
Mount Maunganui boxing club owner Brendon Johnston.
Johnston said he bought the Mount Maunganui boxing club last year, even though he never thought he would own a gym and coach boxing.
He said his father introduced him to boxing when he was a child.
“To be able to do that and make a living, it’s like a paid hobby for me. I wake up every day just excited because I love boxing. I love how it can change people.”
Lifeline is part of Presbyterian Support Northern, a not-for-profit, social services organisation.
Presbyterian Support Northern fundraising general manager Lisa Rudolphe said Lifeline received no Government funding and support from fundraising events such as Johnston’s was vital.
“Lifeline saves lives and has a long history of being there when people really need someone to talk to. It’s important work and the more support we receive, the more calls we can answer,” Rudolphe said.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
