BRYAN, Texas — With September being Suicide Awareness Month according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a Bryan man is spreading awareness by championing a grief and suicide support group after attempting to take his own life.
Paul Borboa lost his daughter in 1998 to a rare Japanese birth defect called Moyamoya, which sent him in a downward spiral of depression.
"My whole world came undone," said Borboa. "This defect at birth, her corroded arteries malformed and she didn't get enough blood supply to the brain."
Borboa continued explaining his journey down the path toward ruin, saying "just after her 11th birthday, her organs shut down, one after the others. The pain became worst after she passed."
He continued explaining his past hardships, saying "my mom was in her mid seventies, she had died of uterine cancer. So when my daughter died one month later, emotionally I was already there."
Two years later, his pain, depression and grief had became too much to bear.
"In the year 2000, 2001 I had had it." said Borboa. "I had lost my job, and I decided I was gonna kill myself."
The news that he had lost his job was the final straw, according to Borboa. "I was still heavily in grief and I was thinking to myself I'm not gonna bother with the bills, I'm not gonna bother with my job, all I'm gonna do is enjoy and love the fact that I'm gonna be with my daughter again."
As he prepared his well-thought out suicide plan in a quaint hotel room, he remembered the last sunset he saw setting in his window, and compared it to a beautiful movie scene, which in turn saved his life.
"I just had the epiphany, this isn't the right thing to do," stated Borboa.
"I was looking through the TV channels, and I was flipping through the channels and then it had occurred to me, it right there, it was God given. It was a commercial, Suicide Prevention Hotline."
He called the hotline immediately and his life changed from there. Then he turned his pain and suffering into a support and grief group on Facebook with over 200 members whose lives were saved because of it.
"We have an online private Facebook group called One Heart Many Hands. It's a private group where we help people deal are suffering from grief. I'm telling them I'm in it with you, I'm, in the trenches and this is what we're gonna, we're gonna do it together because I've been there."
Borboa encourages those to not suffer in silence and speak when they need help or someone to talk to.
"That's when I decided I can turn my pain into something positive, through pain there is growth, through pain there is purpose" said Borboa.
It's purpose that's already reached hundreds as Borboa continues to help save lives as September brings awareness to suicide.