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Airdate: The Stranger on The Bridge

For R U OK? Day, LifeStyle YOU is screening a UK doco about a man hoping to thank someone for their very important deed.

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In the lead up to R U OK? Day, LifeStyle YOU is screening UK documentary The Stranger on The Bridge.

The doco centres around Jonny Benjamin whose attempted suicide was averted by a passing stranger, whom he later tried to find to thank.

The Stranger on The Bridge is a documentary film that tells the moving story of Jonny Benjamin. Having been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder shortly beforehand, he stood on London’s Waterloo Bridge in January 2008 and prepared to take his own life.

That was until a stranger walking across the bridge, saw him and talked Jonny down from the edge. Jonny was taken to hospital and didn’t see the stranger again but was determined to find him and thank him for what he did.

Jonny launched the #FindMike campaign with the support of Rethink Mental Illness, which became a social media sensation, eventually reaching over 300 million people worldwide. In using this hashtag Jonny’s story helped to stimulate positive change and engage viewers in these issues of mental illness in an accessible and sensitive way.

The film captures every step of Jonny’s remarkable journey including the phenomenon of the campaign, the many leads and ‘Mikes’ that came forward and ultimately his successful reunion with the man that saved his life. Everything changed for Jonny that day, but also, as a result, he has become a mental health campaigner who in his own right has helped transform the lives of many other people around the world through his work.

Emotional, heartwarming and thought-provoking, this is a film about a simple human interaction and how one man’s kind gesture eight years ago has had a huge butterfly effect beyond what anyone could ever have imagined.

Lifeline 13 11 14
Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36

Monday September 5 at 9.30pm on LifeStyle YOU.

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