TRURO, NS – Lucas Austin would have turned 30 years old this week. Instead of celebrating the milestone with Lucas, his family and close friends lost him last November to a struggle with mental health and addiction issues.
“Luc was like, a really incredible person. I’ve never met anyone like him,” said John Rodgers, a close friend. “He was a talented artist and carpenter, he dabbled in music. At the time of his death he was enrolled in the school of architecture at Dalhousie and he was a very promising student. He was the light in the room always.”
“He was just such a dynamic person, everything he did, he did in an extravagant, wonderful way,” said Shelley Austin, Lucas’ mother. “I just, to this day, can’t believe the number of people that come up to me and say Lucas touched me and he changed my life.”
Before his sudden death, Lucas and his girlfriend Jillian Ritchie started a group called “Lead With Your Heart.” The goal was to provide creative therapies for people suffering from mental health issues and addiction.
After he passed away, his friends and family decided to continue what Lucas had started and work towards breaking the stigma attached to mental heath issues.
“Having lost a best friend to something that people don’t want to talk about is frustrating. So we just want to do what we can to raise awareness,” Rodgers said.
“People often times look at mental health as an issue that they just don’t understand or they’re afraid to talk about, or think people will judge them if they admit they have a mental illness, even though its something that affects every single one of us,” Ritchie tells Global News.
Lead With Your Heart is holding their first ever fundraiser Saturday night at the Holiday Inn in Truro. The event is being called the Positive Mental Attitude Show, and will feature singing, dancing, a silent auction and a special performance by the Mellotones.
The goal is to promote mental health and celebrate Lucas.
“I feel, when Lucas was suffering, I don’t really think that he got all the help he needed,” said Austin.
All funds raised will go to help a new program called Art Works.
“The money will go towards brining artists in to teach people with mental illness, which would have been perfect for Lucas, he would have loved that ,” Austin said. “I’m hoping that in some little way if we can help some other person then I think we’re doing something that Lucas would have loved.”
Tickets for the event are available in advance at Seashell Design in Truro, on the group’s website http://www.lwyh.org/ or at the door Saturday night.
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