A tattoo for Robbie: remembering the best friend lost in a second |
Canberra public servant Nick Weickart has a tattoo on his right arm bearing the date August 11, 2020.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
Login or signup to continue reading
It's the day his best mate Robbie died by suicide.
The tattoo is a reminder to 22-year-old Nick of the best and worst in life.
"It's not only a reminder of that terrible day but also that it's the day my life changed, in a positive way as well because from that day onwards, I didn't view life the same," he said.
"Life became this whole new thing that I really enjoyed and that I wanted to cherish because from that day I found out everything can be gone in a second and you've got to hang on to every moment and just enjoy it."
Nick, a federal public servant who lives in Lawson, said part of that changing mindset was giving back.
He's signed up for the sixth year to participate in The Push-Up Challenge, Australia's largest mental health and fitness event.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Australians take up the challenge to complete a set number of push-ups that represent the number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in the most recent year of available data.
This year, Nick, along with all the other participants, will be completing 3037 push-ups between June 3 and 26. The number represents the number of lives lost to suicide in 2024, the most recently available........