That’s the task facing former sailor and soldier Matt Deegan who is undertaking Ocsober, a month-long abstinence promotion for children’s charity Life Education.

Mr Deegan, who coaches the Wodonga Jets all-abilities football team, is brutally honest about his reasons for quitting grog.

Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after having been ambushed at gunpoint while a military policeman in East Timor, he wants to prove his mettle.

“What motivates me is getting the message out there and showing one veteran that I’ve come through the other end and there is light at the end of tunnel for them as well,” Mr Deegan said.

He says freely he was suicidal after leaving the army, spent $300 a week on marijuana and gambled to excess.

“I spent all my spare time playing pokies,” Mr Deegan, a father, said.

“I could take $1000 to the pokies and think I didn’t have enough money for beer.

“I called it existing, not living.”

Told six years ago he had PTSD, after getting support from the Hume Veterans’ Information Centre, Mr Deegan had a bittersweet reaction.

“You felt relief that there was an answer to why your life had spiraled out of control but it also takes away your ability to contribute in an employment type of role,” he said.

“You still have flashbacks and still have nightmares and still have ill-feeling towards the higher ranks in the corp that let you down when you needed them.”

As for boozing, Mr Deegan, who works casually at a Wodonga pub, admits he’s a binge drinker and can rack up so many cans and glasses of bourbon in one sitting that he loses count.

But he is determined to notch up an Ocsober, with his effort also including ending a packet of 25-a-day smoking habit and doing 22 push-ups daily to mark the suicides of service personnel.

“It’s not for me to be a hero, it’s to show people there’s light at the end of the tunnel and you can get out,” Mr Deegan said.

“I want to be someone else’s strength.”