Kind Kiwis raise more than $20k for former high-ranking soldier suffering PTSD
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/kind-kiwis-raise-more-than-20k-former-high-ranking-soldier-suffering-ptsd
Mr Blaikie, who was Deputy Director of Intelligence for Combined Force Command in Afghanistan in 2004, returned home after experiencing a near hostage situation and being traumatised by an operation which killed innocent civilians.
In 2006 he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“This injury is not my injury, it’s my family’s – my wife and my kids have really suffered,” he said.
Mr Blaikie’s PTSD reached a critical point in 2012 when he twice tried to take his own life.
“It was the culmination of the frustration just got to me. Everything overloaded my brain and I got to the stage where I just didn’t want to be around anymore,” he added.