They thought the hail, wind and rain was bad, but it wasn’t until a team of 12 friends and colleagues found themselves running in heatwave conditions that the going got really tough. The team included key workers and emergency response staff came together to raise awareness about suicide in Cumbria by each running a minimum of 2km every day for 100 days from April to July.
Read MoreA team of 12 friends and colleagues including key workers and emergency response staff have come together to raise awareness about suicide in Cumbria by each running 2km every day for 100 days. Many of them are not runners and almost everyone on the team has been affected by suicide personally or through their work. They have already run more than 800 miles (Land’s End to John O’Groats is a mere 603 miles as the crow flies) and raised over £1,200 for local charity, Suicide Bereavement Support.
Read MoreHaving waited for more than five months to complete his 10km charity run, Shaun Mayall (10) has finally undertaken the challenge and raised over £5,000 for Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS). The schoolboy from Cockermouth sadly lost his dad, Andy, to suicide in 2014 and decided to honour his memory by challenging himself to run 10km in December. Lockdown, however, put paid to his plans and the youngster was forced to delay.
Read MoreHaving set out to raise £101, Shaun Mayall (10) has now blown the doors off and raised almost £5,000. The schoolboy from Cockermouth sadly lost his dad, Andy, to suicide in 2014 and decided to honour his memory by challenging himself to run 10K, which will now take place on Friday 23 April.
Read MoreShaun Mayall (10) from Cockermouth sadly lost his dad, Andy, to suicide in 2014. One day when Shaun was dwelling on how much he missed his dad at school recently, his teacher, Mrs Winter at Fairfield Primary, asked him if he’d thought about doing something to celebrate the memory of his dad. Shaun was inspired and spent the October half-term brainstorming ideas, eventually settling on a plan to run 10K.
Read MoreA group of 20 workers from Cumbria County Council are currently leading the IASP Cycle Around the Globe challenge, which aims to raise awareness of community-based suicide prevention activities by collectively cycling 24,900 miles.
Read MoreA group of nine entrepreneurial students in Workington have raised more than £700 for a local suicide bereavement charity by upcycling tin cans as part of Gen2’s National Apprenticeship Week Entrepreneurial Challenge.
Read MoreTHE Herald’s #notalone campaign aims to make talking about our mental health commonplace and give people the courage to say when they are suffering, without fear of judgement. Here, John Brown, whose father killed himself 26 years ago, talks about how those who are left behind are often at risk of suicide themselves.
Read MoreIn an ambition to extend and strengthen the support available to local people who have been bereaved by suicide, the steering group of Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) Cumbria has created a new and independent organisation for our area. Suicide Bereavement Support (SBS) aims to support local people by using local resources, whilst continuing to work in partnership with national colleagues and local agencies.
Read MoreEach suicide is thought to directly affect between six and 14 people: parents, partners, children, siblings, friends, work colleagues, teachers, health care professionals. This means that for those 50 suicides in Cumbria, between 300 and 700 people are affected each year as a result of these deaths. Sadly, statistics show that those bereaved by suicide actually have an increased risk of suicide themselves.
Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) is a registered national charity with the express aims of supporting those affected by suicide. It has over 60 branches across England, Wales and Scotland, one of which is SOBS Cumbria, established in November 2010.
SOBS Cumbria is run by a group of volunteers, all of whom have been affected by suicide themselves. They offer informal monthly self-help groups in Carlisle and Kendal and are currently assessing the need for a group in West Cumbria. The group has been contacted by over 150 people bereaved by suicide since 2005, but statistics show that there are many more people who may be in need of support, but may be unaware of the group’s existence.
In an attempt to raise awareness of the support that SOBS Cumbria can provide, the group is pleased to announce the launch of their very own website (www.sobs-cumbria.com) and social media channels. In addition to a closed Facebook group that group members can use as a private place to seek solace with others in similar situations, SOBS Cumbria is now using Facebook and Twitter as additional knowledge bases.
The website is full of advice and resources for people bereaved by suicide, including a comprehensive book shop, videos and various downloadable sources of information. Importantly, it details a number of donation channels, as the group could not exist without such funding. Indeed, it was a generous donation from the organisers of JayFest (a mountain biking festival held in the memory of downhill mountain biker Jaymie Mart) that enabled SOBS Cumbria to develop the website, social media and online channels.
John Brown, founder of SOBS Cumbria and bereaved by his father’s suicide, said, “SOBS provides a service that none of us wish or expect to use, it’s only when the crisis of the suicide of a loved one, a friend or a colleague occurs that we need the support. The launch of the new SOBS Cumbria website and social media now means that we can try to raise awareness in a much more effective way than by the use of traditional communications channels alone and that people can access our services more easily. Anyone who lives in Cumbria, however, will know that word of mouth is usually the most effective means of spreading the message, so we are keen to get people talking and that the online resources will be accessed by people who would like to know how we can help them.”
Paula Mart, who lost her daughter Jaymie to suicide, said of SOBS Cumbria, “The SOBS group in Cumbria are very special. They are non-judgemental and very supportive. It is great to know that there are others, because they have had a similar experience and understand what you have been through or are going through. It is also good to have somewhere to go where you can talk openly and confidentially about difficult experiences and feelings and know that, by sharing those thoughts, feelings and experiences, there are those who are in a position to offer helpful suggestions and strategies, which I found very useful.”
Jane Mathieson, Consultant in Public Health and Chair of the Cumbria Suicide Prevention Group, said, “SOBS Cumbria has filled a real gap since 2010 for people who have been bereaved by suicide; it is a responsive group of people who provide a lifeline to people who have been affected by suicide. The multi-agency suicide prevention group (that I Chair and on which SOBS Cumbria are represented) is indebted to the members of this wholly voluntary peer support group who offer a degree of hope to those people whose lives have been devastated by suicide, in a compassionate and non-judgmental way.”
If you have been bereaved by suicide and would like to talk to someone, please contact us. Our volunteers who will answer your call, text or email have been bereaved by suicide themselves and are fully trained in supporting others in the same situation. We don't mind whether you contact us by phone, text, email or social media. You can visit us at www.sobs-cumbria.org.uk/website for full contact details.
Click here to listen to John Brown and Paula Mart's interview with Radio Cumbria.
Registered office: Suicide Bereavement Support, c/o Woodrow Services (Cumbria) Limited, Woodrow Hall, Woodrow, Wigton, Cumbria CA7 0AT
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