Nominations open for Courage To Come Back Awards

Nominations are now open for next year’s Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back Awards.

1130 NewsRadio is a proud sponsor of the award ceremony, which raises critical funds for British Columbians living with mental illness.

For 2025, there will be four awards instead of five: Addiction, Medical, Mental Health, and a Youth award. The Physical Rehabilitation category has been folded into the Medical category.

Baylie McKnight of Victoria was the 2024 winner of the Mental Health Award. As a counsellor, she says she helps others learn to live with borderline personality disorder because she understands it from lived experience.

“I’ve been there. I have experienced a lot of different things throughout my life,” said McKnight. 

“And then I’ve also found tools that have been helpful for me to be able to cope with those better, and then translate that into helping other people with their own challenges that might be similar.”

Monica Gartner of Burnaby was the 2024 winner of the Medical award. Born with a rare condition known as ‘brittle bone disease,’ Gartner says being disabled is a state of mind, not a state of being.

“It’s sad to see that some people, they go through a traumatic event, and they think it’s the end of their life.  And, it doesn’t have to be the end of your life. At the end of the day, I take a deep breath and I go, ‘Okay, well, what can we do to make things better?  What can I do to move forward?’,” said Gartner.

Kevin Parker of Coquitlam was the 2024 winner in the Addiction category. He says the award helped him mark 15 years of sobriety.

“It’s not easy to come back from anything. There are lots of people who don’t get the opportunity to come back, whether it’s, you know, you’re in an accident and you didn’t make it or whether you’re using substances and you passed away or you’ve had some issues with your mental health. It’s so inspiring to see others just trying to make it through, making it through, and then giving back,” said Parker. 

The deadline for nominations is Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.

The awards gala will be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at the Vancouver Convention Centre.