Dr. Gupta: If you see someone struggling with mental illness, don’t turn away

Programming note: “Champions for Change” is a week-long special event that features CNN journalists revisiting stories and people that have had a lasting impact on them. Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts a one-hour primetime event highlighting the series’ best moments tonight at 8 p.m. CNN — On the morning of September 25, 2000, when Kevin Hines looked out from the Golden Gate Bridge, it must have been a magnificent sight. As soon as Kevin’s hands left the 4-foot-high railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, he felt “instantaneous regret.” He tried to maneuver his body so that he could land feet-first, knowing that would be his only chance of survival. What no one knew was that he had made a silent pact with himself: If anyone offered him a kind word or “friendly eyes” as he made his way to the bridge, he wouldn’t jump. When Kevin and I again walked onto the Golden Gate Bridge last month, 16 years after we met, I saw a completely different person.