However, Wayne’s passion for health and wellbeing ultimately drew him back to mental health advocacy—and it was this same passion that led him to create ‘Puka Up’.
Launched in 2017, Puka Up is a social enterprise focusing on mental health, emotional wellbeing and, importantly, suicide prevention. According to Wayne, the PukaUp vision is to ‘create the environments for every person to have authentic and genuine conversations about mental health and emotional wellbeing’.
As well as running Puka Up, Wayne also delivers his powerful and honest keynote speeches at countless mental health seminars and workshops, where his message never fails to resonate with audiences.
“Wayne is a is a highly intelligent visionary; whose dedication to his work in the mental health space is absolutely inspiring. The team at The Banksia Project were lucky enough to have Wayne participate in our ‘mental health in sports’ forum in May 2017; where Wayne’s insight and delivery were instrumental to the success of the event.” – Josh Flanagan, Vice-Chair, The Banksia Project
In 2018 Wayne will continue as part of the Triple M AFL commentary Team, as host of ‘Off the Bench TV” and will make guest appearances on the Marngnook Footy Show.