Australians mourn Don Ritchie

Mr Ritchie won numerous community awards and a Medal of the Order of Australia and was last year named Australian local hero of the year. He received champagne bottles, Christmas cards and letters from those he saved, sometimes a decade or two later.

“I’m 85 and even at my age it has broadened my horizons with all the wonderful people I have met,” he said.

“I’ve had welcome feedback from people who have come back from the edge.

It’s really rewarding knowing that the action I took changed the course of their lives and got them back on track… It’s important for troubled people to know that there are complete strangers out there, like myself, who are willing and able to help them get through that dark time and to come out on the other side.”

But Mr Ritchie sadly admitted that he was not always successful at bringing back people from the edge. He recalled seeing several people go over, including one instance where he spoke to a quiet young man who “just kept looking straight ahead”.

“I was talking to him for about half an hour thinking I was making headway,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2009. “I said ‘why don’t you come over for a cup of tea, or a beer, if you’d like one?’ He said ‘no’ and stepped straight off the side his hat blew up and I caught it in my hand.”

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