Broken promise of a brother motivating young sailor to help

IT was the promise sailor Kyle Harrison hoped would keep his suicidal brother alive. But before his six month tour was up, older brother Brett took his own life. That tragedy has motivated Kyle into action — ensuring no one family suffers.

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KYLE Harrison’s suicidal brother Brett promised he would still be alive when Kyle got back from a six-month tour of duty. But he didn’t keep that promise.

Now Kyle is an ambassador for Movember because he doesn’t want other families to go through that torment.

Kyle, 23, remembers pleading with his brother to stay alive for the six months he would be serving at sea on HMAS Newcastle.

The ship was travelling via WA, India and the Middle East, with Kyle only able to contact his brother when he was in port.

Kyle told his brother once he was back they could go bushwalking, do some landscaping and drink beers like old times.

But the 25-year-old killed himself on October 14, 2017.

Kyle and his mother Melissa Newman have just lived through the one-year anniversary of Brett’s death. It’s not getting any easier.

Able Seaman Kyle Harrison lost his brother Brett to suicide one year ago. Kyle is raising money for Movember to raise awareness of the issue of mental health. Picture: Toby Zerna

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“I can barely remember what his voice sounds like because it has been so long since I’ve heard him speak,” Kyle, who grew up in the Hills district in Sydney, told The Sunday Telegraph.

“Sometimes I’ll wake up and think everything’s normal. An hour will go by and I will be on my way to work and I’ll then remember he’s gone.

Brett visiting his brother Kyle at HMAS Cerberus recruit school in 2015.

The brothers together last year just week before Kyle was deployed.

“We used to drink beers together and I used to go to send him pics of a new one we could try. Or I’d take a picture about a new motorbike I liked. I go to pick up the phone and send the pics to him and then remember he’s not here.”

The brothers, pictured here in 1997, always had a close bond.

Brett’s diagnosis was never confirmed but his family believed he suffered from a combination of depression, psychosis and Asperger’s syndrome.

In the eight months before Brett’s death he went in and out of acute mental health care.

A few months before his death, Brett was released from an acute mental health hospital to see his family.

When he returned on the Sunday he was told another patient had taken his bed.

Brett in his first year of high school in 2007, while Kyle was in Year 8.

Brett, aged 4, and Kyle, 1, waiting for their mum to finish teaching aerobics at Baulkham Hills in 1996.

Along with highlighting numerous failings in his care, Brett’s mother also told the Queensland Coroner “stigma from family and friends led me to dealing with situation alone”.

“If my brother got the mental health care he should have received then I believe he would still be with us today,” the Australian Navy Able Seaman said.

“I don’t want to see anyone else fall through the cracks. Obviously speaking out about this won’t help my brother but it will help others”.

Kyle is telling his story for the first time as an ambassador for Movember, which is aiming to help reduce the shocking statistic that reveals more three in every four suicides are men.

Since 2003 the foundation has raised and invested millions in men’s mental health and suicide prevention.

You can donate to Kyle at https://mobro.co/kyleharrison303 .

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