Former Bondi Rescue lifeguard Matt Dee dies

Former Bondi Rescue lifeguard and mental health advocate Matt Dee has died. A statement posted online by FTW Revolution, the clothing and events company Dee co-founded, confirmed funeral arrangements were being finalised. Dee became a well-known Bondi Rescue cast member between 2008 and 2017, but was also a Suicide Prevention Australia ambassador. Former Bondi Rescue lifeguard and mental health advocate Matt Dee has died, according to a statement posted online by the company he co-founded. "Matt touched the lives of many, he also did amazing work and he will be deeply missed and forever remembered by those who knew and loved him," the statement, posted on the FTW Revolution Instagram page said. "Funeral arrangements and details will be shared once they have been finalised." The statement also included the numbers of mental health and suicide prevention services such as Lifeline and Beyond Blue. Dee's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed. Dee became a well-known cast member of the Bondi Rescue reality television series and appeared on the show between 2008 and 2017. Tributes and messages of support flowed on the Instagram post confirming his death today, including from the official Bondi Lifeguards account and former lifeguard Trent Maxwell, who commented "rest easy brother". Dee co-founded clothing and events brand FTW Revolution as a suicide prevention resource for young Australians. He would later go on to become an ambassador for the Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) peak body. The company said it had raised at least $500,000 for SPA. "We send our war cry to the government asking why the f---k more is not being done about suicide, Australias [sic] biggest killer for people under 44," Dee said in a LinkedIn post about the company. "We represent the underdogs in the trenches, the battlers in the dark places." In 2015, Australian big wave surfer Justen "Jughead" Allport said in an interview that Dee sought to offer FTW as an outreach service for young people who may not contact traditional mental illness helplines. "Matty just wanted kids that were down, that were from poor backgrounds, to connect with something that could help them," he said. "Matt's just trying to be an alternative for the people who aren't gonna [sic] ring Lifeline. Matt and FTW are about turning negatives into positives." In 2011, he shared his own experience with mental health and suicide — telling the Sun-Herald about the loss of his brother and sister within a year after battles with mental illness. Dee's young sister, Rachel Dee, lived with schizophrenia while his older brother Jonathan had bipolar disorder. ''What happened was not their fault,'' he told The Sun-Herald. ''They did their best to manage their illnesses. It wasn't their fault. They had a problem inside their heads. "It's something we don't understand. How would we know what it's like?''