Finding faith, beauty and purpose through mental health challenges: Justin's story
3 March 2025
If you’re struggling and need support, you’re not alone. Reach out to Beyond Blue or https://www.health.gov.au/topics/mental-health-and-suicide-prevention/mental-health-and-suicide-prevention-contacts for help.
A plumber by trade, Justin had built a successful business and career. For 18 years, he also served as the Brisbane Broncos’ NRL team mascot and reached the semi-finals of Australia’s Got Talent as a singer. On the surface, his life seemed full: a thriving career, a loving family and incredible experiences. But beneath it all was the mounting pressure of a busy life, compounded by mental health struggles he had faced since his mid-teens.
“I’d got through many years by relying on my connection with God,” he says. “But [in that period of my life] I took my eyes off him and started doing things in my own strength.”
Justin was hospitalised in 2012 after a breakdown and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 2. Shortly after, he faced even more upheaval: challenges at work, the loss of his grandmother and a growing sense of failure.
“It all came to a head the following year [2013],” he says. “I thought my family would be better off without me.”
Miraculously, Justin survived his attempt on his own life, thanks to his wife’s instincts and the unexpected arrival of a nurse with mental health training who revived him.
“I had no plan B,” he continues. “I was ashamed and lost, but I know now that God had a plan B, C, D and E.”
Faith through mental health challenges
Justin’s mental health challenges first surfaced in his early teens. Growing up in Auckland, New Zealand, he came from a loving family immersed in music and community. Yet, at 15, he experienced a nervous breakdown due to teen mental health struggles, and attempted to take his life a number of times.
“There was a certain amount of isolation through bullying at school,” he recalls.
“I isolated myself, stayed in my room and drank to cope. At 15, I was in a dark place, thinking irrationally and feeling hopeless. That was my first real decline.”
Hope came unexpectedly through a letter from his cousin, who was touring the US with a well-known Christian band. The message urged Justin not to go through life alone and to consider Jesus.
“I mocked it at first,” he says. “But when I left the hospital, I started seeking answers and found myself in a little Baptist church. That’s when things began to change. Reading the Bible and talking to my pastor gave me hope. The emptiness I had tried to fill with alcohol and other things was replaced by something much deeper.”
A mission born of pain
At 17, Justin moved to Australia alone, leaving his family behind to follow his musical dreams. While the band he came to sing in didn’t last, he found work in the construction industry, embraced his faith and worked to build a new life.
He met his wife at church and together they navigated the joys and struggles of marriage, including the challenges of IVF that gave them their two “beautiful” daughters.
Despite outward success — singing in church, working with the Brisbane Broncos as their mascot and even appearing on reality TV — Justin says busyness and exhaustion eventually led him to “take his eyes off God”. The pressures of work and family, combined with his mental health challenges, culminated in the attempt to take his own life in 2013.
The following years of surviving were “incredibly tough” he explains, including questioning his relationship with God. However, as he looks back, he sees now that there were many “miracles” along the way.
“No matter how far I ran from God, he was still there. He still had a plan for me.”
A church member consistently showed up for Justin during that time, offering unwavering support, even when Justin was angry and difficult. “It taught me the power of simply showing up,” he says.
Justin began working part-time with people transitioning from institutional mental health care back into the community. “It taught me to listen — not to fix, but to truly understand,” he explains.
“That was a turning point. I realised that my own pain had equipped me to sit with others in their darkest moments and offer a glimmer of hope.”
A life transformed by faith and purpose
Justin’s faith and family remain his foundation.
Today, Justin remains a devoted husband and father, as well as an award-winning poet, singer and speaker. He works as the program coordinator for Mates in Construction, focusing on suicide prevention and postvention in the construction and mining industries.
Justin’s efforts have earned him recognition, including the National Communities Matter LIFE Award in 2019 and the RUOK Barbara Hocking Conversation Champion Award in 2021. As a LivingWorks trainer, he has educated thousands of construction workers in suicide prevention.
He has shared his journey and poetry at The Salvation Army’s GSA in Brisbane, a church he loves for its raw honesty and connection with broken people seeking God. “God’s a fan of the broken,” Justin says. “Every time I share my story, it’s a privilege. [The book of] Revelation in the Bible talks about the power of our testimony, and if my story can help even one person, then it’s all been worth it.”
As Easter approaches, Justin reflects on God’s faithfulness in his life.
“With God, I can be real. The reality is that I don’t always get it right. I stuff up. I ask for forgiveness, and I keep coming back. When you can get to that space in a relationship where it’s a two-way street, you can be open and honest with God — there’s always hope,” he says.
“Easter is where hope begins. We see the worst of humanity at Easter — people turning their backs on this incredible human who is also God. But the redemption aspect is beautiful,” he shares. “I’ve climbed that wobbly corporate ladder and had some success, but I found nothing but hopelessness without God and without the incredible, miraculous hands of God on my life.”
To Justin, the message of Easter is clear: no matter how deep or dark the past may be, anyone can have their own redemption story.
“Three days after being killed, God gave Jesus life again. That’s what Easter means — we’ve been given a second chance through Jesus’s death and resurrection. And that means real hope, no matter how dark things might seem.”
Breath
(a poem by Justin)
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
And from that dust,
that miry clay,
the very ground on which we stand,
you gathered land
and formed us into what you’d planned.
Yet it was only when your breath breathed life,
that like a knife
your love broke through,
turning languishing, lifeless, limited clay
into a resplendent reflection of you.
We were only ornamental
until your gentle,
life-inducing breath became central
to our existence.
You walked with us, you talked with us,
you exhaled each time we failed —
and yet your love was never veiled,
with grace and mercy in full sail.
Full of air, full of breeze,
as we do our best to please,
lifting praises from our knees —
you inclined your ear.
And when doubt and fear drew near,
you reminded us you care,
as on those dry bones, flesh appeared,
and again your BREATH dispelled despair.
Time and time again,
you breathed life into situations,
impacting nations and generations,
and then fulfilling expectations,
there came a star.
And in Bethlehem, an heir,
a precious baby with no compare,
taking their first sip of air —
hope was born.
Born from love, born for love,
for a world that needed healing,
agape love that broke the ceiling.
He walked with us and talked with us,
experiencing every feeling.
Then in harmony with prophecy,
God’s plan fulfilled obediently,
for the sake of OUR eternity,
he shed HIS blood at Calvary,
a sacrifice for all humanity.
And as he breathed his last breath
on that cross at his death,
he declared, “It is finished,”
yet not fully diminished.
For three days later,
with keys in his hand
and the breath of new life at his humble command,
he passed on the promise
to every woman and man —
of Salvation.
And then, descending from above,
the Holy Spirit like a dove,
a friend, a guide,
an extension of his love,
demonstrating daily
the power of that breath.
I felt that breath whisper softly,
calling ME by name,
and through thankful tears I came —
impacted and protracted,
I will never ever be the same.
So, with my diaphragm full of air —
air you chose to share,
allowing me to still be here —
I thank you, I praise you.
For all the things that you’ve done
and are going to do,
I’ll do my best to
live daily for you.
Until that day
when my last breath slips away
and I return to that clay,
longing to hear you say,
‘Well done’.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust —
you made us, you love us.
In God I will trust.