LEWISVILLE, N.C. – As National Suicide Prevention Awareness Week wraps up Saturday, organizers across the state are working to help raise awareness and money for suicide prevention.

Meredy Swafford is one of those organizers. She's working on one of the state's Out of the Darkness Walk benefits.

"I want to help other people not to have to go through the pain that I've gone through," Swafford said.

She and her children were left behind when her husband Doug killed himself in 2005.

"I guess you expect this kind of thing to happen to other people, but you never expect it to happen to you," Swafford said.

The couple first met while learning pipe-fitting and later married. Doug Swafford was ex-military, with paratrooper and dive training -- active -- and fun.

"He was the uncle all the kids would hang off of at every family gathering," Meredy said.

He was diagnosed with kidney disease and other problems a few months before he died and was in a lot of pain.

An estimated 90 percent of victims have a major mental health issue.

"People don't seek the help they might because there's such a stigma attached to it, or they don't talk about it," Meredy said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. -- second among young adults aged 25 to 34. And also, there are millions of Americans who suffer silently from depression each year.

"Because of cultural norms, religious norms, beliefs and attitudes, suicide carries its own set of stigma -- the shame, the guilt," Andy Hagler, of the Forsyth Mental Health Association, said.

Mental health professionals say awareness is part of the solution.

The birth of Swafford's granddaughter helped ease her pain, along with counseling, support groups and community involvement.

"Hopefully, his loss won't be in vain," she said. "If we start talking about suicide, we start talking about mental illness, and we take the stigma off of it."

Since the couple rode motorcycles together, she also organized a benefit ride in October.