Daniel: I think it's been difficult on my children perhaps in particular. It was August last year when I was first diagnosed with depression. In hindsight, it's been there for a lot longer. I started getting uncontrollable tremors, shaking, just flippin' out, just stuff I couldn't understand.

Rochelle: Yeah Dan's always been happy around everybody. So to find out that he had depression was a bit upsetting.

Daniel: It's something a lot of people sorta said, started talking about it, was "I would never have thought you would be the sort of person that would have depression." You would never pick it in a lot of people. They're very good at hiding it.

When I started fundraising, it was like I'd really like to give back and do something for other people who may be going through something similar to me. I've always ran the City2Surf – it's something I love to do – so I thought it was a good opportunity to raise funds for Beyond Blue and help other folks that are going through the same thing as me.

Well I have an Instagram account, got nearly 1,000 followers on there, and I use that just to get it out there and raise awareness and raise funds. Beyond Blue itself are very helpful in helping you with your fundraising and getting information out there, and they're really really supportive of their fundraisers.

I had a training plan that I'd set up to go for a sub 2-hour half marathon. And I was pretty much on track for that. And then about four weeks out, I started getting pain in my stomach – "what's going on here?" Went up to see my GP, and bam, appendicitis. So straight into surgery the following morning, they pulled that bad boy out. And then yeah, just gently started getting back into walking. Managed to walk a few Ks [kilometres]. Then started hitting the treadmill, and setting on a really slow running pace.

So I just went out there [to the City2Surf] with the intention of finishing, just to get out there and get it done and be amongst all the other people running in Beyond Blue tops, and you know it was the high fives and the "hi's" and everything else as you're going past. So it really feels great to be a part of something like that.

I'd set a smaller [fundraising] goal, but I think I actually managed to end up getting double what I'd expected, which was fantastic. The generosity of people just blew me away.

My GP said to me, "There are sort of three ways to deal with depression – your medication, psychotherapy, and exercise. You need the three to really get a good result." And I found, by picking up on my exercise and really pushing myself, as well as the other two aspects of it, I feel like I've managed it a lot better. It isn't just me I've gotta take care of. I've got a son and daughter also need taking care of. And if I can't take care of myself, how can I take care of someone else? It gives me that ability to be a better dad, and spend time with them, but spend quality time with them and really be a parent.

Rochelle: Oh I just think that it shows that he's strong, yeah. Anybody that can get out into the community and, put any of their issues aside, and help others and be happy and support people, yeah, strong person.

Daniel: Fundraising for Beyond Blue is one of the most rewarding things you can ever do. It's really fantastic to find out that it does make such an enormous difference to the charity.