Pat Blacker is a powerful example of how lived experience, compassion, and community work can come together to change lives, especially for people touched by suicide, grief, and mental health challenges. Working with StandBy – Support After Suicide in the Nepean and Blue Mountains region, Pat walks alongside individuals and communities after a suicide, helping them navigate some of the hardest days of their lives. As a regular voice on the Men’s Mental Health Show on Radio Blue Mountains, he brings a grounded, real-world perspective to conversations about grief, self-compassion, healthy habits, and community support.

Pat lives with epilepsy and has faced the confronting reality of needing brain surgery, a journey he has openly shared to deepen understanding and reduce stigma around both neurological and mental health conditions. By speaking publicly about what he has been through, he gives others permission to be honest about their own struggles and to see courage not as “having it all together,” but as showing up anyway. Through StandBy, he helps create safe spaces where people can talk about loss, guilt, love, and the long, non-linear road of healing after suicide.

On air and in person, Pat champions connection, positive masculinity, and the power of small, consistent habits, reminding men in particular that asking for help and talking about emotions are acts of strength, not weakness. He represents the kind of quiet leadership that holds communities together: showing up at the kitchen table, in the studio, at local events, and in those raw moments when there are more questions than answers. This post is a thank you to Pat for the work seen and unseen, for every conversation that helped someone get through another day, and for reminding us that community care is built one brave story at a time.