ST. LOUIS — One in five adults in America struggles with mental health. Which means we all likely know someone dealing with a debilitating illness.
Alex Lindley and Danny Kerth lost two of their closest friends at Mizzou to suicide. Two shocking, eye-opening tragedies that plunged them into creating real change around mental health.
Lindley and Kerth were just 19 when their close friend Carolyn took her life.
“Believe it or not, two years later, another suicide, my best friend," said Lindley. “I was 21 years old and had given two eulogies for two amazing people who died."
It was then Lindley knew he had to do something.
"He rounded all of us up senior year for a meeting to basically say look I have an idea to make a documentary about Ryan’s life in hopes that others will see this and know they are not alone and that they are loved," Kerth recalled.
What truly ignited the passion for these St. Louis natives was that their friend Ryan tried to get help.
"He walked into a hospital and he was denied admittance because he didn't pass a suicide risk assessment that they had in place back then because they didn't have enough beds and he didn't fit the bill to get one of the limited spaces," explained Lindley. "He was gone a few hours later. That will fire anybody up."
Out of those tragedies, Project Wake Up was born. Their documentary featuring Ryan's story and others from around the country was released in 2019.
“We really wanted to hammer home the point that mental illness is something that doesn't discriminate," said Kerth.
It’s been seven years since their first meeting on Mizzou's campus. They've held trivia nights, golf tournaments and virtual fundraisers raising tens of thousands of dollars towards their documentary and a scholarship in Ryan's name.
But these guys are just getting started.
“Hopefully a docuseries is something we can get our hands on someday," Lindley said.
"The more people that get access to mental health care, the better off we're going to be as a society," said Kerth.
For more information visit the Project Wake Up website.