Photo Credit: ABC News

Alison Fairleigh is a passionate advocate for rural mental health and farming communities, with a mission to ensure mental health is deemed as important as physical health in the agricultural sector. As the student services manager at an agricultural college in North Queensland in 2008, when three local men in the small rural community took their own lives in the space of three weeks.

In 2013, Alison was chosen as the RIRDC QLD Rural Woman of the Year for her advocacy in improved rural mental health services and suicide prevention. In 2015, Alison was chosen by the Premier of Queensland to be an Australia Day Ambassador. Alison sits on the Friends Advisory Committee for the National Rural Health Alliance, as well as being an associate member of the Rural Doctors’ Association of Queensland. She has successfully used social media to shine a light on life in rural and remote Australia, and is passionate about empowering others to find their digital voice.