[GAVIN LARKIN, RU OK? DAY FOUNDER]: G'day. As someone who's had a lifelong love affair with the last word,
it's no surprise that I want to have it here. So hopefully you'll indulge me.
Goodbye. Goodbye to all of you. Love yourselves and each other.
[GAVIN] I got into advertising in 1996.
[ASHTON BISHOP, COLEAGUE] Gav was the quintessential alpha male.
Whenever he walked into the room people knew the big man had arrived and he
couldn't have really swinging much higher in terms of having the beautiful house, the
beautiful life, success in every way, shape or form.
[GAVIN] I had three beautiful kids. I had
a wonderful wife and our marriage was the best it had been in fifteen years of being
together, and I should have been feeling on the top of the world and, you know, I felt empty.
I felt black. And it really scared me. You know, I started to worry that I might do what
my father did which was take his own life.
[ASHTON] Gav was quite worried about the confusion
that he had about why he was not feeling complete when the world tells him that he's got, actually,
everything that he needs.
I'd done some work with a self-improvement
communications course and he went and did it and got a lot out of it.
[GAVIN] Part of that course is to develop a project that inspires you and that has a
benefit to any community that you're involved in and I chose suicide prevention.
The thought of doing a day of action became, really, the imperative
and on the spot I called it RU OK? Day.
Today's the day that I need to think about
someone other than myself who might be struggling, you know? And reach out and say "are you OK?"
[ASHTON] You know, when Gav took it on, there was no stopping him.
[GAVIN] It's almost double the road toll and no one talks about it.
[JOHN SINGLETON, FRIEND] You've got News Limited on side, all the networks on side, somehow
or other he conned Hugh Jackman, you name it. Everyone got into this "RU OK? Day"
[GAVIN] I started to get these, what I thought were, sports injuries.
Finally the pain got so bad my doctor ordered a full body scan
and that full body scan turned up bone cancer.
16th of February, 2010 my world just collapsed. It was like getting hit by a truck because
the fear is intense, because you don't know what it is.
In the background, while all this is going on, our 11-year-old son at the time, Gus,
had been having some trouble with his eye.
Tragically, they said that Gus had an inoperable
brain tumour, which was just ...
devastating doesn't even do it justice.
[GUS LARKIN, SON] Que sera.
[GAVIN] Que sera. It is true isn't it. You
could say "why me?" And then you go "well, why not me?" You know, what is it about us that's
so different or special. At the end of the day life is random and that's what makes it
wonderful and you've just got to cop the good with the bad.
[MARYANNE LARKIN, WIFE] I'm so proud of Gus. You know he has just been so accepting all
the way through of his own sickness and I feel like he is of Gavin's as well and there
a bit of camaraderie there.
[GUS] He's tough and brave. Same thing really,
and we all love him. He's got so much support.
[MARYANNE] Gav, you know, he fought to make
sure that he saw that very last RU OK? Day on September 2011.
[GAVIN] I'm sitting at home and I've got Twitter on and looking at Facebook and I've just been
watching commercial channels and they're running the ads and it's everywhere. So I'm very happy ...
[MARYANNE] He was determined. He did a radio interview the very day of RU OK? Day as well,
and he was so sick.
[GAVIN] RU OK? Day was always something that
I wanted to see live on because it is more important than me.
[MARYANNE] And then the following week after that is when he died.
[FAMILY] 3 - 2 - 1! We love you Gav. We love you mate. Bye Gav.
[MARYANNE] Towards the end of 2012 Gus did get sick again. That was a really, really
hard time because I knew Gus was going to get really sick and I didn't have Gav with
me to navigate that.
Gus was very accepting. He didn't want to
talk about his sickness so much, which I love about him, and he lived like that
'til the very end.
We went on a holiday about a year after Gus died.
I remember being so upset on that holiday because it was families all around us, and
it was so obvious to me that we'd gone from five to four to three in such
a short amount of time, it was so ... I remember it being so confronting.
[MARYANNE] You guys remember a lot from when you were little.
[JOSIE LARKIN, DAUGHTER] I like the best how we chose photos (from) when Gus and Dad weren't sick.
I was very much, like why did it have to happen to us?
But I think I just very much focused on the fact that it wasn't, like, they've
left and that everything of them is gone. There is so many other things in our life
now that are constant reminders of them.
[VAN LARKIN, SON] Dad was very brave. He was very strong-hearted.
[JOSIE] Ooh, look how cute you were, you and
Gus were in that little bath photo.
[VAN] I think about Gus a lot. Every day I
would go into his bed and watch iPad and stuff.
[MARYANNE] I think outsiders look at it and think
"oh my God, what if that happened to me? How would I get up every day" and blah,
and I do have feelings like that some days, that it is so hard.
But we've been able to cope and I would say cope pretty well, actually.
[JOSIE] But now, hopefully, by me sharing a part of myself with you, you may be able
to share a part of yourself with someone else. Thank you.
This is the house that lives and breathes RU OK?, and it's incredible to see the community
that RU OK? built around us.
[BRENDAN MAHER, RU OK? CEO] The Larkins stay very involved in what we do.
Josie often speaks on behalf of us. Maz (Maryanne) is someone
who comes in and gives us a hand from time to time. Gav's brother Aya is still on the board.
I mean, it's come a long way. The growth has
been phenomenal. About 80% of Australians know about RU OK? Day.
Gav's never far away, you know. I often think "what would Gav think about this?" And I hope
that he'd be happy with where we're going.
[MARYANNE] He'd be very happy. He would be very happy.
When Gav started RU OK?, he had no idea what was down the track for us,
so it's so strange to think that what he put in place was actually
going to help his family when he ... when he died. And it has, enormously.