For Cindy Osborne and her family, paying her brother a visit from time to time is not always easy.

“He would’ve just celebrated his 37th birthday the [April] 27th,” Osborne mentioned.

7 years have come and gone since Osborne and her family made their first trip to his grave site.

“Each day does get easier.  You have to have faith to know that they’re in a much better place,” she said.

Mark Fulgham was known as a gentle giant and an occasional jokester.

He served two tours of duty in the Army National Guard in Iraq.

Fulgham followed in the footsteps of both his father and older brother.

“It was always something he knew he wanted to do…he was actually wanting to go back again,” said Osborne.

While preparing for his third tour of duty, Fulgham made a trip to Myrtle Beach on his way to visit family in Georgia.

“One of Mark’s good friends that care kept his truck and that kind of thing. So when they found the truck.  That’s who they notified first,” Osborne explained.

However, left to tell were the details of what happened.  Mark’s father got the news first, then his sister Cindy.

 “He said he was at the beach and he shot himself.  I was like no, there is no way.  I was hysterical,” she stated.

The Department of Veteran Affairs estimates 22 veterans a day commit suicide.

Many face PTSD, homelessness and unemployment.

A Vietnam veteran and former Florence County VA Officer, Rick Walden knows how hard it can be.

“The transition is not always easy,” he mentioned.

“Sometimes they get the feeling that no one cares and they are in this all by themselves.  They have served their country and nobody cares,” Walden added.

In February, the U.S. Senate passed the Clay Hunt Act, named after an Iraq war veteran who killed himself.

The bill calls for a centralized website for veterans, stronger recruiting of psychiatrists and annual third-party evaluations of the VA’s mental health care and suicide prevention programs.

Walden says unless more is done more returning soldiers are at risk.

“You keep trying for the veterans, because the veterans are the reason we are here today,” he stated.

In the Pee Dee, veterans have to travel to either Charleston or Columbia to get treatment at a VA Medical Center.

There are community outpatient clinics in both Florence and Myrtle Beach.

With the help of the VA, Walden is in the process of opening a satellite center at the Pee Dee Mental Health Facility in Florence.

It’s a place where veterans can come and get the help they need.

“It’s therapeutic in nature.  They don’t have to travel as far.  They don’t have to go to Columbia or they don’t have to go to Charleston or they don’t have to go to Myrtle Beach.  It can be right here in the Pee Dee area,” Walden explained.

It’s a  dream he’s had for 10 years, to bring peace to veterans once they’re back home so they don’t miss out on life, as it goes on.

“It’s that you know that he has and is missing out on all those milestones that you go through,” said Osborne.

She will soon hit another milestone by walking down the aisle.

“The way my fiance is I know they would be cutting up having a hoot,” she added.

Fulgham’s family members say they didn’t notice any problems with him before his death.

Walden says the satellite center is just months from providing services.

He also hopes to build a nursing home for local veterans.

The VA does have several resources for veterans considering suicide:

www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org (it provides live chat)

Veteran’s crisis line – 1-800-273-talk (8255) (press 1 for veterans)

Veteran’s crisis line text – 838255

You can also reach Walden at (843)731-5919 or at rwaldenmetv@gmail.com