Not Alone: NSW teenager’s harrowing plea after her brother’s tragic death

Shanayah Kennedy, herself just 19, made a harrowing plea after her younger brother and best friend took his own life.

A NSW teenager has a simple message for anyone struggling with their mental health after losing her younger brother to suicide during the state’s regional lockdown in August last year.

Shanayah Kennedy, 19, came face-to-face with the devastating consequences of mental illness on Wednesday, August 23.

The Dubbo woman hadn’t heard from her younger brother Jye, aged 17, all day Tuesday. After checking in with Jye’s friends, she realised no one else had either.

Mental health and suicide are not easy subjects to talk about, but news.com.au wants you to know you’re Not Alone. News.com.au’s Not Alone will raise awareness about these issues and provide you with the resources needed to reach out for help.

Finally, the next day, she went to his home where he lived by himself, as part of a youth organisation he was involved in. Checking the shed, her worst fears were realised.

“And then I found him, I was screaming,” she told news.com.au. “Everything went blank around me. I could tell he was just gone.”

Jye and Shanayah were two years apart.

Jye had been mentally struggling for some time.

Ms Kennedy, whose little brother was her best friend, has been pushing the message “it ain’t weak to speak” after what happened to Jye.

“Just please, don’t do it,” she said.

“I do not wish this on anyone.

“Reach out for help. If you’re feeling like that ring someone, anyone, don’t let your mind tell you otherwise.

“You really are loved.”

The two siblings were very close.

Ms Kennedy said Jye “brightened” up the room and liked to joke around.

She has many fond memories of him, such as them moving around together in NSW and doubling each other on bikes. He “always had my back”, she said.

The two were particularly close as they were the only “full-blood” siblings in their family. They also have two half-siblings in Lismore.

She believes Jye’s condition worsened during weeks of lockdown, saying “it pushed him a bit”.

Ms Kennedy said Jye was lonely.

“He wanted people to hang out or stay with him,” she explained. “He asked me to move in with him.”

A survey commissioned by Suicide Prevention Australia and completed by YouGov in August last year, found 25 per cent of adult Australians surveyed knew someone who had died by suicide or attempted to take their own life in the previous 12 months. About 15 per cent knew the person directly, while another 11 per cent knew them indirectly.

About 16 per cent said they had sought help or searched for advice from a suicide prevention service in the past 12 months, about 16 per cent said they had indirectly sought help.

Most people thought “social isolation and loneliness” was the biggest risk to suicide in the next 12 months, with 64 per cent rating it as an issue.

Jye, however, had been down for some time and had been on antidepressants.

The teen had dropped out of school but was enrolled at TAFE to “start over”. He was studying to do youth work to help others like him.

The 17-year-old’s suicide came out of the blue, with Jye seemingly doing better in the lead-up to his death.

He had just landed a new job at a local KFC and was looking forward to starting there.

“I know he had been struggling, we had a talk but he was really excited to start a new job (at) KFC, really excited to get that bit of extra cash.

Jye wanted to do social work to help young people.

“He was getting a new job, he was getting his Ps, had his own place — everything was great.”

However, Jye never turned up to his first shift. It was the same day he died.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions at the time, only 10 people were allowed to go to his funeral. The event was livestreamed allowing 800 people — friends, family and the broader community — to attend.

The family created a GoFundMe page to fund the funeral, raising $13,320.

“Myself and my family are absolutely blown away and hands down grateful for every single person that has helped and supported us so that Jye could have a beautiful send off,” Ms Kennedy wrote on the page. “We have reached our goal all thanks to the help of you lovely people that donated ... words can’t explain how much we appreciate it.”