1 in 5

Thursday, 10 September 2015 at 14:23

One man is trying to raise awareness and end the stigma surrounding sexual abuse.

A cross country journey for a man who experienced sexual abuse ended in July after a banged up knee and a bad case of bronchitis.

Paulie O'Byrne was trying to stick handle across the Country to share his story of sexual abuse while he was a hockey coach in Delhi. O'Byrne was molested by the President of Delhi Minor Hockey in 2006 and tells Heart FM he didn't want to share his story initially.

"Because I think it needs to be more widely spoken about, some of the things that happened to be me, I didn't want to talk about because I thought my friends would think I was weak or thought my friends would think maybe I was a homosexual, and those were just thoughts in my head that maybe society or stigma had put there."

He says a big reason why he wanted to do the trek across Canada was to inspire other men who have been abused to come forward and not let their abusers get away with the crime.

"That's the ultimate goal, because I don't want anyone to feel like I did 9 years ago thinking that I was the only person and thinking I should be holding the shame, and that if this has happened to you, you are not the person who should be holding the shame, it is most definitely not your fault."

O'Byrne did suffer from addiction and depression after the incident and says the best gift he has ever been given was going to mental health counselling.

"Today being world suicide prevention day, I have had three pretty serious suicide attempts, I am a testament to say that I never wanted my story to end, I just wanted the chaos to end in my head and I never wanted to kill myself, I just wanted the stuff to stop in my head and I do address that through mental health counselling."

O'Byrne is also trying to raise $1 million, half he will give away to 10 established charities and the other half to build a centre for men and woman who have suffered some kind of physical or emotional abuse. You can learn more about his story on his web site http://www.im1in5.com/