Vale: Charmaine Dragun
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Charmaine Dragun was described by friends as “the sweetest person you could ever meet.”
As recently as Thursday she had been discussing Christmas plans with colleagues. Life was seemingly good for the TEN newsreader. Her boyfriend had recently moved from Perth to Sydney with her two beloved terriers. The couple owned a $320,000 unit in WA. They had also planned a surprise wedding for next March. Dragun had even purchased tickets to Bjork’s concert just two hours before her death.
But her smile belied the anti-depressants she was taking on medical advice. She had recently changed brands which would take up to six weeks to take effect. “No one knew she had any mental health issues. She was always upbeat,” a friend told the Sydney Morning Herald.
It is not uncommon for many who are depressed to present a different veneer according to beyondblue’s, Dr Michael Baigent, “If someone wants to conceal it, they will. I have had many patients with severe depression put on a smile and appear happy.”
Family and friends were keen to reiterate that despite her tragic death, her life was surrounded with love. “While she did find it difficult living away from her family in Perth, she was surrounded by a tight-knit group of supportive friends in Sydney. She enjoyed Sydney, but there was no denying that Perth was her home.” said a statement published in The Australian.
Meanwhile TEN’s Head of News Jim Carroll has criticized Nine newsreader Kelly Nestor for her comments at the weekend. “Speculating on what may have contributed to this tragedy at this time is unhelpful and insensitive, particularly to Charmaine’s family.
“With respect to comments attributed to Kelly Nestor, who by her own admission had no relationship with Charmaine, we struggle to understand what would motivate an ex-employee of Ten’s to make such inappropriate and ill-informed comments.”
Yesterday, the Ten Network declined to confirm speculation that it planned to move its news bulletin back to Perth next year.
Sources: Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian.
4 Responses
Thanks for pointing out the error, now corrected.
“Her boyfriend, forensic pathologist Simon Struthers, had recently moved from Perth to live with her, bringing her two much-loved terriers. The couple owned a $320,000 home unit.” -SMH.
Charmaine’s boyfriend did not move into a $320,000 unit with her in Sydney. They bought the unit in Perth suburb two years ago. If articles are going to be rewritten please make sure the facts aren’t altered. Many thanks.
Yeah, I thought that little input from Kelly Nestor was pretty vulture-ish.
The reason she said the stuff about how important it is to present the news in the city in which it is aired is because that’s Channel Nine’s big slogan. “Local news, produced locally” or something similar.
Stupid Kelly Nestor. Boo!
while im sure there is some basis in what Kelly Nestor says about feelings of isolation and such around being removed from the audience that your are presenting to, her comments were just really ill timed, less than 48 hours after Charmaines death..I really hope someone at 9 tells her to pull her head in!