Berty

17/01/2023

You don’t have to say sorry for what you love, how you laugh, how you dress, how you speak. You don’t have to be sorry for being yourself.

Do it fearlessly. It’s time to accept this is you, and you gotta spend the rest of your life with you. Start loving your sarcasm, your awkwardness, your weirdness, your unique sense of humour, your everything. You are enough. Cars For Hope

17/10/2022

Looking back at it many years on I just wanted to say how blown away I am with all the support you’ve shared with me as the aspiring photographer I was at 19. Over the years things have changed, I don’t take as many photographs as I used too and somewhere along the way I discovered I actually enjoyed writing a whole lot.

Somehow I developed this love for storytelling and I have been away doing that for many of Australia’s leading motoring brands. But above most, the things we’ve been able to do with the Cars For Hope charity organisation is hands down the proudest thing we’ve done.

I think there are a lot of cool things behind the scenes I haven’t shared before and I think you might enjoy it. But I can promise you that I still love Japanese cars and motorsport a little too much and I still own the same Honda S2000 today. That’s my little vent for today and a note to say thank you for your support, because I certainly will not forget it.

Today is World Mental Health Day. That means it has been 11 years since we put the words Cars For Hope on the side of our Honda Integra and went racing to tell the story of our friend Annabel.

Was it messed up that Annabel didn’t want to get better? That she didn’t want to be here anymore? Yeah it’s totally messed up. We’ve spent the last decade trying to better understand all of this. Annabel didn’t come out of the womb an evil person, she came out of the womb a beautiful baby girl, who unbeknownst to her, had a couple of wires crossed.

Depression is a degenerative disease. It can be deadly. And it’s no different than cancer. And she got it. Why? Luck of the draw. The hardest part of having the disease of depression or anxiety, aside from having the disease, is that no one in the world sees it as a disease. They see you as selfish. They see you as weak. They see you as cruel. They see you as destructive. They think, why should I give a s**t about her if she doesn't give a s**t about herself or anybody else? Why does this girl deserve my time, my patience, my sympathy? Right? All reasonable questions and responses.

But luckily, if you are an Annabel, you aren't the only person on this planet who lives with this disease. There happens to be people like me and an entire community, who understand that -- you aren't all that bad. And we won’t encourage a binary ‘ok or not ok’ thinking about mental health. Underneath all this chaotic energy, you’re probably a really nice person. And that’s why for the last 11 years, it has been an absolute honour to remind you that hope is real and that recovery is possible.

We've seen people stay close to the things they love and taking the brave steps towards help and healing.
Heard from people sitting across from their doctor or counsellor for the first time.
And we will continue to drive towards to end of mental health stigma, despite the fact that sometimes you don’t want to get better.

It is our hope that you, never, ever, give up.

05/04/2021

Just in case you needed a reminder. Your life is worth fighting for. Your story is important.

Your love matters. Your life matters. Your story matters.

01/03/2020

My name is Berty (I’m the one on the far right). I went to school at Cecil Hills High School. I have a best friend… at least I used to. Cecil Hills is just a place somewhere in the world. Maybe it’s a lot like your world, maybe it’s nothing like it. But if you look closer, you might see someone like you. Someone trying to find their way. Someone trying to find their place.

Sometimes we feel too much. I know I do. And my friend Annabel did, too. She struggled with self injury and believed that the world had forgotten about her.

Sometimes it seems like you are the only one in the world who’s struggling, who’s frustrated, unsatisfied and barely getting by. But that feeling’s a lie. And if you just hold on, and find the courage to face it all for another day, someone or something will find you and make it all okay.

Today, March 1, is Self-Injury Awareness Day, and the entire month of March is designated as Self-Injury Awareness Month. Cars For Hope created this campaign because we all need a little help sometimes. Someone to help us hear the music in the world and to remind us that it won’t always be this way.

We're encouraging everyone to take this opportunity to talk about self injury and mental health. Ask the questions everyone else is afraid to ask. Talk about it in a way that is accurate and respectful.

If you struggle, you’re not alone. Self injury does not define you. No struggle will ever define you; your story is more than that and you deserve to be free from this pain. You are beautiful, wonderful, incredible, and inspiring. Lovely and lovable.

Today is about remembering that we all have different pains in our lives—there’s simply no way to avoid that. But in our hearts we are the same, and we have been given the gift of going through life with others. We are human, and we exist in this human family. We are not alone in this life.
We are Cars For Hope.

�To find out more about the campaign, visit: www.theorangeeffect.com.au

06/05/2019

Love this!

You were once that little kid. Now you owe it to them to be the best you can be.

25/04/2019

Lest we forget.

As we pause to remember the men and women killed in combat, we choose also to remember the soldiers lost to su***de.

If things are tough today, please remember that we see you, we hear you and we are with you.

30/03/2019

Thank you.

https://carsforhope.com.au/2019/03/thank-you-for-fighting-against-stigma-with-us/

THANK YOU FOR FIGHTING AGAINST THIS STIGMA WITH US

Cars For Hope began because we believed in the story of Annabel, who was struggling with depression and for a long time, believed the lie that the world had forgotten about her.

Over the years we‘ve come to know that many others are also battling depression, anxiety and self-injury. That’s why we believe it’s so important to encourage people to have the difficult conversations and seek the professional help that they deserve.

With the help of everybody who has shared a story, supported a friend, or done anything from their heart for mental health, we have always: believed in the necessity for access to the right information about mental health; endeavoured toward fighting the stigma surrounding mental illness, and; helped to facilitate others who are dedicated to the treatment of mental illness.

This is why each and every person who has contributed to the organisation has done so as a volunteer without financial incentive. It is very important to us that the goals we envision are done for the right reason, and this is a mantra we will continue to operate by.

Over the past few years Cars For Hope has worked year-round to insight conversation about good mental health, and delivered various campaigns including for Self-Injury Awareness Day and for World Su***de Prevention Day which have been great successes. What we stand for was never meant to be a one-step, cure-all process, but we are doing what we believe are important steps toward a better landscape for mental health by sparking meaningful conversations and connecting people to help on their road to recovery.

In the 2017-2018 Australian Financial Year we invested 100% of all donations to Cars For Hope directly into mental illness research and treatment via Black Dog Institute. They resonate closely with what we strive for and specialise in diagnosing, treating and preventing mental illness through programs such as the development of clinical treatments and e-mental health tools. 73% of the expenses of Cars For Hope for the 2017-2018 period were attributed to operating expenses, which include advertising, accounting, consumables and manufacturing merchandise.

Cars For Hope is the vessel for carrying the message of hope and the story of Annabel, but it is every one of you who echoes what this truly means to you. We are unboundedly grateful and hold dear to our hearts everybody who believes in Annabel, and that hope is real and recovery is possible.

We are always open to any queries about Cars For Hope, who we are or what we do. Please get in touch with us at: [email protected].

*ACNC FY17-18 Annual Information Statement: https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/ais/e4fc4fdb0c6e124383b9a47755a2ac10

https://carsforhope.com.au/2019/03/thank-you-for-fighting-against-stigma-with-us/