Breaking Waves Charity

We are a brand new charity who supports the family members of those who have survived a suicide attempt.

We realised that in our region there is a huge gap in support services available for these family members, many who have experience the traumatic event with their loved ones or may be struggling to deal with it themselves.

The charity was founded by Suzanne Barbour of Barbour Coaching. It was inspired by a family member whose spouse had made an attempt to take their own life. The family member and their teenage child discovered their loved one in extremely traumatic circumstances.

Thankfully their loved one survived and received immediate medical and psychological support, however the family member and child received nothing, despite living through the trauma themselves.

Having struggled to find the right help, the family member attended one of Suzanne's Suicide Awareness trainings through their workplace and asked her for guidance on where to find help.

Suzanne reached out to many of her contacts in the Charity and Mental Health sectors and found nothing specific to their needs.

As the rates of suicide in the North East of England are consistently the highest in England & Wales, this also means that many families are living with the trauma of surviving a suicide attempt and not receiving any support.

At Breaking Waves, we want to change all that.

We want to break the silence, end the stigma and provide safe environments for families to connect, talk openly about their experiences and learn how to recover as a family.

Please help us raise these vital funds so we can support a currently silenced community of people.

You can find where there are groups near you and other information on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Thank you

Suzanne Barbour

Founder