ONO’S SUICIDE STATEMENT HAS DEEP IMPACT

Local 12 News |May 23, 2016

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – When Nancy Eigel-Miller lost her husband eight years ago, she founded the Warrior Run to raise awareness and money for suicide prevention.

Two years ago, after the disappearance and suicide of UC student Brogan Dulle, she crossed paths for the first time university president Santa Ono. “That was the first time I met him and he said that I should do something like the 1N5 event,” Eigel-Miller said Monday afternoon, May 23, from her home in Mariemont.

1N5 stands for the ‘one in five’ Americans who suffer from mental health issues. She had no idea Ono has struggled with depression and attempted suicide twice in the past. “He told me his story at that point. I knew that it wasn’t public information and I knew that was his story to tell and he said he’d tell it when we did this event.” Miller organized the fundraiser and hosted it. Santa Ono kept his word and talked at length about his issues. As a boy he felt like a failure in the shadow of a brilliant father and two siblings who were math and music prodigies. Ono tried to kill himself when he was 14 and again when he was 29. He encouraged people to talk about their feelings and break through the stigma surrounding mental illness.

“For him to be that open and honest it will move this issue forward in a way that we could not do on our own,” said Eigel-Miller. “People need to know it can happen to anybody. If we don’t understand what we’re looking at it’s going to continue to happen. More people are going to die because there were signs in my husband’s case and I just didn’t know what they were. Start the conversation. Talk about it at the dinner table.”

The 1N5 event raised about $80,000 for high school and college suicide prevention programs.