The store manager of Connor Clothing at Dubbo’s Orana Mall Shopping Centre and her “great team” value the chance to contribute to suicide prevention awareness while raising money for the charity R U OK?

This week the charity announced that the store was the “number one” seller of R U OK? $2 wallets among 145 Connor Clothing stores nationwide.  The wallets stick to the back of phones and hold the likes of credit cards. They carry the R U OK? message of “A conversation could change a life”.

All money raised from the sale of the wallets goes towards the training of R U OK? community ambassadors who gather in Sydney from across Australia three times a year.

On Friday Miss Spears said the point-of-sale recommendation to buy a wallet could prompt important conversations. “People will tell you their stories,” she said. “How they have come into contact with suicide or their personal mental health stories. It’s hard to hold back the tears but they are smiling by the time they leave because you have stood there and had that conversation with them.”

Supporting R U OK? is “very personal” for the effervescent manager. “My son has suffered from depression for most of his life,” she said.  “He’s talked about thoughts of committing suicide after being bullied at school. I was lucky to pick up on that and we got the right support in the right places. He’s come through it but if I didn’t have the help for my son, he might not be here today.” 

Since August, Dubbo’s Connor store has sold 3189 wallets, raising $6379. Behind it sits a Queensland store that sold 2160 wallets for $4320 and a Port Macquarie store that sold 1404 wallets for $2808.

The Dubbo effort has been applauded by Connor “area and regional” management and staff from sister stores in emails and phone calls.

“We pump the other stores up as well,” Miss Spears said. “Some people can be quite nervous about asking for the $2 and are not fully aware of what R U OK? stands for. So we are just getting them comfortable with it all, making them excited and telling them how to do it.” 

Ms Spears said her customers had embraced the opportunity to make a difference. “A lot of people will donate over and over and over again, because they have already got the wallet,” she said.

The manager feels “very proud”, emotional and motivated to be part of a movement that is saving lives. “I’ve got a great team here in Dubbo,” she said. “They’ve got behind it as much as I have.”