Raising Suicide Awareness Across the Country One Step at a Time
Mike, Andy and Tim, 3 suicide-bereaved dads; in 2021 we walked in memory of our daughters, Beth, Sophie and Emily, who we lost to suicide. We are 3 Dads Walking.
Last autumn we walked between our homes, from Cumbria to Manchester then onto Norfolk, over 300 miles. Along the way we talked about suicide prevention, helped raise the profile of PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide and spoke to many other suicide-bereaved parents.
We wanted to show that suicide can touch any family, anywhere in the country. We are just 3 ordinary dads from normal families…but, for us. suicide shattered our lives. We are determined to help spread the word about suicide prevention to prevent other families suffering the same devastating trauma that we are going through
Our walk had significantly more impact than we expected; our initial target was to raise £3,000 each for the charity, we actually raised over £800,000. More importantly the high profile we (unexpectedly) gained encouraged people across the UK to talk openly about suicide and suicide prevention. Gen Flynn (CEO of PAPYRUS) said that we had “changed the landscape of suicide awareness”
We are proud of what we achieved, the feedback we have received from the charity and many individuals who reached out to us shows that we have made a real difference. PAPYRUS is accelerating its plans to take HOPELINEUK 24/7 and is bringing forwards the opening of more offices to give better nationwide coverage; more people will receive training in suicide awareness and suicide prevention – more lives will be saved.
We know that many people reached out to PAPYRUS for help and training, many of whom referenced 3 Dads Walking. Parents have also thanked us because seeing us on the walk and listening to our stories allowed them to have safe conversations with their children about suicide and mental health issues. These open and frank conversations will have saved lives.
With all this happening already why go for another walk?
- Fundraising. We are close to raising £1,000,000 for PAPYRUS, it would be remiss of us not to go again.
- Our campaign to get suicide prevention onto the school PSHE curriculum.
Fundraising
At the moment our JustGiving page stands at £613,000, with £125,000 Gift Aid and donations made directly to PAPYRUS we have raised over £880,000.
We will raise our JustGiving target to £1,000,000 in the knowledge that, if we reach this target, we will generate close to £1.5 million for the charity. This will allow the team at PAPYRUS to open more offices, deliver more training and equip more young people to deal with the most dangerous thing in their lives – themselves.
The PSHE curriculum
At the moment schools are advised to teach one hour a week of Personal, Social, Health & Economic (PSHE) education. Every school should ensure that each child is guaranteed a PSHE education that covers mental health and wellbeing, however there is no obligation for schools to address suicide prevention.
During our walk we met very many suicide-bereaved parents, all of them said the same thing; it was only after they lost their child that they discovered that suicide of the biggest killer of under 35’s in the UK, they all asked, “If suicide is the biggest threat to our children’s lives, why is no one talking about it?”
Our schools use PSHE lessons to talk about knife & gun crime, the dangers of drug misuse, radicalisation and the terror threat but nothing is said about the biggest killer of young people – suicide. Over 200 school-aged children take their own lives every year but we are doing nothing to equip young people with understanding and skills that could allow them to save themselves.
3 Dads Walking UK2022 will continue to encourage our government to make changes to the school curriculum which will directly lead to lives being saved.
We must walk again because, as a society, we are allowing thousands of unnecessary deaths each year. If our schools can deliver age-appropriate lessons on suicide awareness we can give our young people the knowledge and skills that will help them and others in the future.
To find out more about us, our girls and our walk visit: 3dadswalking.uk
September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day – that morning we will be at Holyrood in Edinburgh where we will start our long walk south towards Cardiff. Check our itinerary & route on our website and come along and say hello.
Andy, Mike & Tim | 3 Dads Walking
PAPYRUS HOPELINKUK is a confidential support and advice service for:
- Children and young people under the age of 35 who are experiencing thoughts of suicide.
- Anyone concerned that a young person could be thinking about suicide.
HOPELINKUK advisers want to work with you to understand why these thoughts of suicide might be present. They also want to provide you with a safe place to talk through anything happening in your life that could be impacting on your or anyone else’s ability to stay safe.
Call: 0800 068 4141
Text: 07860 039 967
Email: pat@papyrus-uk.org
Opening hours:
9am to midnight every day of the year