Raising Awareness of HUGG Support Service

Hello, we are Cathy and Conor McCarthy. Our son Ross died by suicide on the first of May 2023, two weeks shy of his 25th birthday. And so our grief journey began. A journey Cathy and I will travel on for the rest of our living days. As we take our first steps along that journey, we are grateful to have found HUGG and grateful for the support and shared understanding that we have received from the HUGG support group.

Ross was a beautiful boy, always in good form, always smiling, always stuck in the middle of the action, the centre of the party, the centre of attention. He had wonderful friends who he loved, and they loved him. He was an exceptionally gifted sportsman, literally any sport he took up, he excelled at.

And so, it is to sport that we have turned and in particular to running as our mechanism to cope with our grief and for our own wellbeing and health.

On Sunday 29 Oct 2023, Cathy and I will run the Dublin City Marathon in memory of Ross and to raise awareness of HUGG. We want to raise over €10,000 to assist HUGG with training and upskilling facilitators for HUGG support groups in addition to supporting funding for the general day-to-day operations of this fantastic charity.

We both find comfort and healing in the coping power of running. It distracts us from the tiredness, the exhaustion, the breaking into tears for no apparent reason, the lack of concentration, the absence of focus and interest, and of course the physical pain, all of those many symptoms of the grief we endure on a continual basis as we deal with the stress of the loss of our beautiful boy, Ross.

Ross’s struggles are over now. He is finally at peace. We will think of him every day. We will miss him terribly. Dublin City Marathon 2023 is for you Ross, and for HUGG.

Thank you so much for your support.

Conor and Cathy McCarthy