Kai’s Legacy
Our story, our vision, and our mission are defined by our experience. Our story is one we see too often, a story of loss. We lost someone so dear and so rare, someone we loved more dearly than we can tell you. This loss is something we are still learning how to recover from, and something that will shape us forever.
His name is Kai Ogden. He is our son, our brother, our friend. He is our jester, our neighbour, our partner. He is a sense of warmth, a sense of belonging, and a feeling of love. Sometimes he was our life coach, other times a philosopher or an activist.
Kai was 19 when he took his life in July of 2022. Kai’s struggle was unique, but that doesn't mean he struggled alone. Our struggle is unique, and we know we’re not alone. We’ve come a long way since then. We’ve learned how to carry our grief a little better, we’ve learned how to share this burden, and to rely on each other.
A Message From A Survivor
I have never truly considered myself a survivor. I wish I didn’t have to be, but the universe had a different journey planned for me, leaving me no other choice.
What makes someone a survivor?
It’s not overcoming the challenges, it’s finding strength in those challenges to see hope and use that hope to encourage and empower others to see hope. If I can use my journey to help others see a light in days where there seems to only be darkness, then in my heart, I am honouring every loved one I have lost.
I’d need a novel to recount my life story and perhaps one day I will tell it, but in the meantime, I’m hoping this short snippet gives you hope that you too can overcome your loss and carry grief with you, not let it burden you.
I lost my mum to cancer when I was just 11 years old, carrying grief with me most of my life. A significant loss I could easily let burden me forever, or one I could draw strength from. It was the loss of my mum that taught me to focus on the positives in life.
Losing her taught me independence, resilience and what love truly was, and it is love that brings me here. The love for my 19-year-old son Kai, who died by suicide on the 18th July, 2022. Kai was my first born and taught me how to be a mum; he taught me unconditional love.
That day is etched in my mind forever.
I wish that was the only date I would never forget. Just ten days later, the night before Kai’s funeral, my older brother Clinton, my protector, who supported me through the loss of our mum, also died by suicide.
I often wonder, how much more I have to bear and how I can keep putting one foot in front of the other faced with these challenges. In times of deep loss, we must draw strength from the love we have for what we lost and hold that place in our hearts forever. No two people deal with loss the same, but it is in our understanding of the love we lost that we draw strength from one another and #SharetheBurden.
Our
Mission
Share the Burden is a not-for-profit organisation committed to the enactment of suicide prevention and bereavement support across the Central Queensland community. We endeavour to achieve this through a range of ongoing campaigns to improve understanding, provide support and community to the survivors of suicide loss, improve access to education, and connect those in difficulty to relevant services.
Who are we?
Share the burden is an association of volunteers that all share experiences of suicide bereavement. Our losses and experiences have afforded us a detailed view of the suicide crisis, not only in our region, but the wider national community as well. Our losses have afforded us a unique insight into the feelings and experiences of those vulnerable to suicidality.
We view these experiences as an opportunity to connect with and support those most at risk. Not only do we recognise this opportunity but view it as our responsibility to pledge our support to all those that can benefit from it.
We recognise that taking any step in the direction of seeking help or support can be daunting or stigmatised against. We are trying to defeat this ideology through our name and slogan, “Share the Burden”. We are an organisation that promotes the evolution of healthy conversation using the phrase, “How are you coping?”. In asking this, we are attempting to create opportunities for more sincere and meaningful connections.
What are we doing?
Our goal is simple, make the change we want to see. We have several campaigns outlined that we feel make us stand out. See our Projects & Events page for more.
Our primary goals are to offer support to and connect those in crisis; to increase the availability of qualified mental health support; to interconnect existing services and organisations in communities; to provide support and community to the survivors of suicide loss; and to improve the education culture around mental health and suicidality. We’re looking to work with schools to identify and close gaps in this area.
We believe that we can make significant progress in this field and aim to develop a community network of support, initiatives, and services that can unify the suicide prevention and greater mental health environment. We aim to work with businesses, organisations, communities, and governments to create an interconnected network of support services so that we all can access the opportunities we deserve. We aim to be a symbol of community, support, safety, and hope.
Why now?
Suicide persists as a critical factor in our communities, and we believe that we can add our efforts in coordination with those already working in this space to make significant improvements.
There is a lot of great work already being done in this space, however we find in our communities that the environment can be fragmented and difficult to navigate. We want to bridge the gap between mental health services and those who are struggling.
We aim to be a symbol of hope to all.
In each of our initiatives, we plan to start within our own community of the Capricorn region, with plans to expand to state-level campaigns and ultimately impact the greater national landscape.
#SharetheBurden