What the actual helly… $553 in 24 hours?!

What the actual hell… $553 in 24 hours?!

I did not expect that.

To everyone who has donated already — thank you. Genuinely.

I opened the page, saw the total sitting at $553, and just kind of stared at it for a minute. It hit me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. The support. The belief. The fact that people are backing this.

It means more than I can properly articulate.

What I’m Actually Doing (In Case You Missed It)

On March 29, I’ll be sitting in a 2m x 2m square for 20 hours.

No phone.
No tech.
No distractions.

Just me, a chair, and a journal.

Twenty hours alone with my own thoughts.

Which, if you know me… is confronting.

I don’t sit still well. I keep busy. I fill the space. I move straight onto the next thing. Silence isn’t my comfort zone, momentum is.

So if I’m going to do this properly, I can’t just rock up on the day and hope I suddenly know how to be still.

I need to start getting uncomfortable now.

Enter: The Mini Challenges

To prepare (and also make this slightly entertaining for you), I’ve created a series of mini challenges over the next month.

They’ll be fun for you to watch.

They will be very uncomfortable for me.

First Up: Sunrise Club ☀️

From now until Sunday 11:59pm, every donation over $50 means I’m up at 5am.

Five.

In the dark.
Before the birds.
Before the sun.
Before my personality.

And I’ll document it properly — the mood, the energy, the resistance, what it actually does to me.

Because I do not do mornings. I am a night owl through and through. This is not my brand.

Where We’re At

We’re now just $447 away from $1,000.

That number feels wild to even type.

If you’ve been thinking about donating, now might be the time. Apparently I’m becoming a 5am person against my will, and I’d like that suffering to count for something.

Thank you again to everyone who’s supported this already.

You’ve already made this bigger than I imagined.

And now… I guess I’m setting my alarm.

 I’m going to sit in a 2 metre square box for 20 hours.

No phone.
No music.
No talking.
No distractions.

Just me, a chair and my thoughts.

If you know me, you’ll know that’s not exactly my comfort zone.

I don’t sit still well. I stay busy. I work. I plan. I help. I distract. Being productive has been one of my favourite coping mechanisms for years.

Because when it gets quiet, that’s when everything I’ve pushed down tends to float back up.

Mental health has been part of my story since I was a teenager. Being bullied at school does something to you. It teaches you to shrink yourself before you even understand what confidence is supposed to look like.

There’s family trauma in there too. Grief. Friends I’ve lost to suicide. The kind of loss that never really makes sense and never really goes away.

And the last couple of years have honestly been heavy. Breakups that cracked me open. Burnout that left me exhausted in a way sleep doesn’t fix. A broken wrist that physically forced me to slow down when emotionally I did not want to feel anything at all.

There were moments I was not okay.
Moments I did not ask for help.
Moments where my thoughts were not kind.

And there were moments I did reach out. That changed everything.

That is why I care so much about prevention.

Suicide is still the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44.

Only 2 percent of mental health funding goes towards prevention.

Two percent.

We wait until people are in crisis and then scramble to respond. We do not invest enough in giving young people tools before they reach breaking point.

That is what 20Talk is trying to change.

They focus on prevention. On making mental health education relatable and accessible. On running Mental Health Maintenance courses that teach young people how to understand their thoughts, manage their emotions and ask for help early.

I am raising $1,000 for 20Talk.

Not because it is a nice round number. But because every $120 puts a young person through a full day course that could change how they see themselves. That could give them language for what they are feeling. That could help them reach out sooner than some of us did.

I cannot change the past. I cannot bring back the people we have lost. I cannot undo the parts of my story that hurt.

But I can sit in a box for 20 hours.

Without distractions. Without hiding behind busy.

If you have ever struggled, even quietly.
If you have ever loved someone who has.
If you have ever wished there was more we could do before it gets to crisis.

There is.

If you are able to donate, even a small amount makes a difference. And if you cannot, sharing this helps too.

And if you are reading this and thinking “I am not okay but I do not know how to say it” you are not weak. You are not dramatic. You are not alone.

Thank you for supporting this. It genuinely means a lot.

With love.