Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, mental health issues, grief and the loss of a parent and child to illness. If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14. 

Find more support services here: Need help? Support services and crisis helplines in Australia - The Australian Women's Weekly 

In 2009, Gavin Larkin sat his wife Maryanne and their closest friends down at the dinner table and told them about an idea he'd been carrying since his own father died by suicide years earlier. It was a simple question that could change everything: "Are you okay?" 

Allison "Ally" Langdon, a journalist and friend who was part of that conversation, knew instantly she had to help get the message out. What followed was R U OK? Day which has since grown into a national movement. But what followed was something that neither Ally nor Maryanne could have imagined. 

In this episode, Ally and Maryanne sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about the early, uncomfortable days of getting a newsroom to even say the word "suicide," what it actually looked like for Ally to show up for her friend in the hardest years of her life, and the quiet, everyday ways two women have held a friendship together, and a legacy alive, for close to two decades. 

Moments you'll hear: 

• The dinner table conversation in 2009 that became R U OK? Day 
• Why newsrooms wouldn't touch the word "suicide," and the pushback Ally got 
• Maryanne on losing both Gavin and her eldest son Gus, and why moving into her late son's bedroom with her two younger kids helped them all grieve 
• The small, practical ways Ally and their friend group showed up during the hardest years 
• What it means to keep telling stories about someone you've lost 
• Nearly 20 years on, what they still hope for each other 

Visit the R U OK? Day website here. 

Learn more about Ally and Maryanne's friendship in our exclusive interview here

Thank you for listening ❤️ 

Before you leave... 

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Credits 

Host: Tiffany Dunk 

Edited by Phoebe Zukowski-Wallace 

Production by Leah Porges 

Our wonderful The Australian Women's Weekly team 

Our Head of Vodcasting is Rachel Fountain 

Learn More: The Australian Women's Weekly website.