Warm, adventurous, talented, and a friend to everyone, Connor Hogan was just 23 when he took his own life. The young man is being remembered by his close friends in the ‘Crusade for Connor’ campaign, a weeklong event full of feats of endurance to raise awareness for schizophrenia research.

From completing a triathlon every day for a week to busking for 12 hours, ten of Connor’s closest mates are undertaking physical and cognitively demanding activities throughout the first week of May. The events represent the continual battle people with schizophrenia face, but they also help the boys feel connected to their friend.

“We picked things that we could associate with Connor. I remember always kicking a footy or playing some sort of sport with him … A lot of the other lads are doing things that they remember doing with Connor,” says childhood friend, Luke Bradley.

Luke and Connor had been friends since primary school. Growing up together, he saw Connor make friends everywhere he went. Luke says Connor was never part of a particular clique or group, as people naturally gravitated towards his kind and welcoming nature.

Twenty-four hours of straight tennis playing is what Luke has signed up for in the Crusade. All the funds raised from the weeklong event will go towards NeuRA, specifically toward the organisation’s schizophrenia research.

“Doing a lot of research into understanding what causes schizophrenia, on a genetic level. Then also, what the best management strategies are as well in terms of treatment through medications and those sorts of things,” says Luke.

The Crusade for Connor organisers also want to raise awareness for friends and family of people who live with schizophrenia, as to how they can try to support their loved one.

“For me, I know that I didn’t really know what schizophrenia was or how, as a friend, to manage it or what the treatment pathways were,” says Luke.

When he was 19, Connor was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which his mother, Carolyn, says was an uneasy journey, as they didn’t get a definitive diagnosis at first. She says it was a gradual realisation that life is going to be a struggle from now on.

“The problem is with schizophrenia is it’s not well understood by anybody, really. They’ve never really come up with anything hard and fast – what causes it, what it’s about, what it’s like … people misunderstand what it’s like to live with a stigma,” says Carolyn.

After his diagnosis, life for Connor was up and down, she says. He struggled to get work because of the struggles he met on daily basis, and he tried all the treatments that were offered to him.

“He tried his best; he tried all the recommendations about exercising and eating healthfully. He took on all the advice people gave him; he tried it,” Carolyn says.

She thought her son had the world at his feet, had huge amounts of talent, wasn’t competitive, and knew the importance of having good friends.

“He seemed to be able to turn his hand to anything quite easily, he had a spirit of adventure. Some of these boys, he would go mountain biking with; he played football for many years for the Tigers; he got heavily into the performing arts; he fell in love with the guitar,” she says.

The friends from these different passions have come together for the crusade.

Finley Hollyhead and Connor became great friends when Connor was in year 12. They would often grab a coffee, catch a music show, or take a trip down the coast. Finley will be hiking Mount Kosciuszko with two others.

When Finley received his own schizophrenia diagnosis, Connor was the person he turned to, not knowing at the time his friend had received the same diagnosis not long before. Finley says Connor found it more difficult to talk about than he does, which is not a weakness; rather, he says, it is the nature of the condition and the stigma attached.

“I think he unfortunately started pushing people away. It’s not that he didn’t love his friends … No one will really know the true things he was experiencing; it was very difficult to maintain social relationships with a lot of people,” says Finley.

He says Connor’s friends did everything they could, but it is a situation where people don’t fully understand what the symptoms are like for the person living with schizophrenia.

The Crusade for Connor’s original funding goal was $10,000 but having reached that in less than four days, they raised it to $20,000, which was again surpassed, so the new goal is now $40,000. Carolyn says the amount of support flooding in has blown them all away, believing the struggle to get effective and timely help resonates with a lot of people.

“You have a broken leg, and you call a nice shiny ambulance comes and takes you to hospital; something like mental illness is much more difficult to get effective treatment,” says Carolyn.

Two years ago, Carolyn had cancer, but says she wasn’t that worried as it felt like she was entering a well-oiled machine. Not a walk in the park by any means, but doctors were confident in what they were doing, things were straightforward. However, for Connor things were trial and error, hoping something would work.

“In the meantime, you’ll find that the side effects to the drugs are just as debilitating almost as your disease. So, you go through this cycle of trying drugs, and then out of that drug and into another. This struggle can go on for many months or years,” says Carolyn.

“I think Connor’s quality of life was taken from him before he took his own life,” says Finley.

The impairment people can face with mental illness can be a deep pit, he says. Understanding that it is a sensitive area, and everyone experiences schizophrenia in their own way, he says there are difficult periods which can be hard to put to words as it is an invisible impairment.

“I don’t expect people to understand what I’m going through. I don’t even fully understand it myself. I think Connor could relate to that, definitely,” he says.

The loss of their son and friend is one that has been felt by all of the communities Connor connected with.

“I think we won’t know what it is like to have an absence of Connor in our lives; it is too hard to comprehend. It will be a gradual understanding of that over time,” says Finley.

Luke’s advice for anyone with a friend who is living with schizophrenia is to make sure all the steps are in place and to be a good mate.

“As much as it is good to make sure you’re being the friend that’s like ‘Are you seeing the right people, are you getting a lot of support’ I think being the mate that goes for a kick of the footy or just does normal also goes a long way as well,” Luke says.

To support Crusade for Connor, visit personalchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/CrusadeforConnor or follow their efforts via ‘Crusade for Connor’ on Facebook and Instagram.

If this story raised concerns, help is available. Call or visit the website of Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636). In an emergency, call 000.

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