WARNING: Distressing content Proud mum Sam lifted up her phone and snapped a photo of Chloe on her first day of high school. The Brisbane mum beamed from ear to ear, excited for her daughter’s next chapter. But just nine months later, the 13-year-old took her own life. “I look back at the photo now and Chloe is just so drained of colour,” Sam tells 7Life of the early signs of depression she had missed in her precious child. “She looked miserable.
“I was just staring at all of this work and just couldn’t keep anything in.” Drawing parallels to her daughter’s struggles with reading, she realised the inability to retain information was a sign of depression. Sam began researching mental health more deeply, desperate to try to understand what drew her daughter to cut her life short. The remarkable mum signed up for numerous charity walks and events raising money and awareness for mental health and began sharing snippets of Chloe’s life.