Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland 100km Cycle
Donation protected
https://yspi.ie/
We are doing a 100km cycle in August for Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland.
We want to share our stories about how suicide has affected our lives, and why it is so important to raise awareness and raise money for such an amazing charity. All proceeds raised will go to YSPI.
This charity is highly important for this country. According to Unicef, Ireland has the fourth highest teen suicide rate and 17th highest suicide rate in the EU. In our country, suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst 15-29-year olds. These are terrifying facts.
But we know it’s hard to imagine the people behind the statistics, and the lives and the stories behind numbers. It’s even harder to be the one trying to express what it’s like to lose a loved one to suicide. I myself have had two very close experiences of this, and I would like to share my story, and Dearbhla will also tell hers. Because, as hard as it is to describe, it’s harder to know that there will be more families like mine and Dearbhlas, who will have to go through the pain of losing their loved ones to suicide.
We are cycling from Salthill out the coast road to Roundstone in Galway, and anyone who knows us knows that we are probably the least athletic people in Ireland, so this will be incredibly difficult, but it is very much worth it for the cause.
Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland has been working over 10 years to provide free education and training services to schools and colleges in Ireland. Their facilitators work with students and staff to promote awareness, provide skills and advice. They operate a FreeText service where people in need of crisis information can text free of charge, and they provide funding for immediate access to crisis counselling for at-risk teenagers.
Currently, they want to raise funds for Ireland’s first mobile youth crisis counselling service.
This is an amazing charity, and sadly is very much needed in our country. We have been best friends for the last 8 years, and sadly we've had to support each other through the pain of losing family and friends to suicide. Here are our stories.
(Aoife)
One night in February 2015, I was waiting up for my older brother Thomas to come home. He was your typical older brother, bit of a bully to be honest, he knocked out one of my front teeth on the way home from school by accident, and chased me the whole way home as I was bawling my eyes out trying to convince me not to tell our parents. He refused point blank to let me win at Mario Kart. He would shut off the game if I tried.
But, he was also loving, and gentle, and hilarious, and I would spend hours watching him play video games just for his narrations.
On that particular night, I was watching Ted, which is rated 15. I was three months away from turning 15, but I knew as soon as Thomas got back home, he’d be giving out to me for watching an inappropriate movie. So I waited and waited for him to come home and give out. But he didn’t. And, four days later, I had to watch as my cousins carried him into my house in a coffin.
So, whilst my brother was still legally classified as a child, my family, his friends and all the other people he had touched in his short life, had to see him being buried. And that’s a specific type of heartbreak that I really can’t begin to describe. That my brother was not allowed to make the decision to vote, yet he made a decision to end his own life.
Skip forward four years nearly to the date, and in February 2019, I met possible the most beautiful soul on the face of the earth, my recent boyfriend Karl. I loved him, and I wish I could be more poetic, but it’s as simple as that, I loved him very deeply. He would light up my life in a million different ways, every single day. He would always wake up extremely early, and I’d wake up to a text every single morning. I worked in a Gaeltacht camp last year where I didn’t have a phone, and he sent me letters, nearly every day. He was the sweetest boy you could ever imagine; he loved his family more than I have ever seen in a young man.
Every time I went to see him, he’d open the door with the biggest smile you would have ever seen in your life. He got me through my Leaving Cert, he got me through funerals and anniversaries, he was always there for me. And I will never be able to fully describe how sweet and gentle and hilarious this boy was.
Karl died in January this year, and I’m still in shock. I miss him every day, and I see him in everything I do. And it breaks my heart that he doesn’t get to live the rest of his life, because he was amazing, and he would have had the most beautiful life, and would have brought joy to so many people, I know that.
(Dearbhla)
On the 24th of January 2018, my Dad took his own life.
Like most teenagers, I had a complicated relationship with my dad. He was passionate, determined, stubborn, kind, clever, honest, but most of all loving and proud of the life he had built. When he died, not only did I lose the father I had, but I also lost the possibility of having a better relationship with him. I always believed that we would grow closer as I grew up. And there are certain things I just assumed he'd be there to do, like giving me driving lessons or walk me down the aisle.
Unfortunately, my Dad is one of many who lost their battle with mental health. In 2018, 352 suicides were recorded in Ireland. Knowing the profound impact that suicide has on the lives of my friends and family, figures like this scares me. The kind of grief that is felt after losing a loved one to suicide is hard to put into words. There are questions that will never be answered and so much confusion and anger around how unnecessary it all feels.
As the last person who spoke to my Dad before the left the house on that day, I found myself wondering whether there was something I could've done to stop it, something I could've said to him. This is something that I wish no one else would have to go through.
And that's why Aoife and I, who are in no way athletic or cyclists for that matter, are doing this. Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland are taking imperative action to save the futures of those who otherwise may not have one and keep families and friends from experiencing the kind of pain that we (and so many others) have. So, I encourage you to donate whatever you can.
So there are our stories. And sadly, there are thousands of these stories in our country. But, these are not numbers. These are people. And sadly, these numbers can be children. Who should be playing, and laughing and going to school, and imagining their futures and making friends. They should neither be deciding to end their own lives, or have to go through the trauma of recovering after their friend or sibling or classmate has taken their life.
So we are cycling to raise awareness, and any support at all, no matter how small will be greatly greatly appreciated. And if you get stuck behind us when we’re cycling our 100km I’m very sorry, we’re trying our best.
Thank you so much for reading our stories, and thank you all for your support. Mind yourselves.
In memory of Thomas, Peter and Karl x
We are doing a 100km cycle in August for Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland.
We want to share our stories about how suicide has affected our lives, and why it is so important to raise awareness and raise money for such an amazing charity. All proceeds raised will go to YSPI.
This charity is highly important for this country. According to Unicef, Ireland has the fourth highest teen suicide rate and 17th highest suicide rate in the EU. In our country, suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst 15-29-year olds. These are terrifying facts.
But we know it’s hard to imagine the people behind the statistics, and the lives and the stories behind numbers. It’s even harder to be the one trying to express what it’s like to lose a loved one to suicide. I myself have had two very close experiences of this, and I would like to share my story, and Dearbhla will also tell hers. Because, as hard as it is to describe, it’s harder to know that there will be more families like mine and Dearbhlas, who will have to go through the pain of losing their loved ones to suicide.
We are cycling from Salthill out the coast road to Roundstone in Galway, and anyone who knows us knows that we are probably the least athletic people in Ireland, so this will be incredibly difficult, but it is very much worth it for the cause.
Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland has been working over 10 years to provide free education and training services to schools and colleges in Ireland. Their facilitators work with students and staff to promote awareness, provide skills and advice. They operate a FreeText service where people in need of crisis information can text free of charge, and they provide funding for immediate access to crisis counselling for at-risk teenagers.
Currently, they want to raise funds for Ireland’s first mobile youth crisis counselling service.
This is an amazing charity, and sadly is very much needed in our country. We have been best friends for the last 8 years, and sadly we've had to support each other through the pain of losing family and friends to suicide. Here are our stories.
(Aoife)
One night in February 2015, I was waiting up for my older brother Thomas to come home. He was your typical older brother, bit of a bully to be honest, he knocked out one of my front teeth on the way home from school by accident, and chased me the whole way home as I was bawling my eyes out trying to convince me not to tell our parents. He refused point blank to let me win at Mario Kart. He would shut off the game if I tried.
But, he was also loving, and gentle, and hilarious, and I would spend hours watching him play video games just for his narrations.
On that particular night, I was watching Ted, which is rated 15. I was three months away from turning 15, but I knew as soon as Thomas got back home, he’d be giving out to me for watching an inappropriate movie. So I waited and waited for him to come home and give out. But he didn’t. And, four days later, I had to watch as my cousins carried him into my house in a coffin.
So, whilst my brother was still legally classified as a child, my family, his friends and all the other people he had touched in his short life, had to see him being buried. And that’s a specific type of heartbreak that I really can’t begin to describe. That my brother was not allowed to make the decision to vote, yet he made a decision to end his own life.
Skip forward four years nearly to the date, and in February 2019, I met possible the most beautiful soul on the face of the earth, my recent boyfriend Karl. I loved him, and I wish I could be more poetic, but it’s as simple as that, I loved him very deeply. He would light up my life in a million different ways, every single day. He would always wake up extremely early, and I’d wake up to a text every single morning. I worked in a Gaeltacht camp last year where I didn’t have a phone, and he sent me letters, nearly every day. He was the sweetest boy you could ever imagine; he loved his family more than I have ever seen in a young man.
Every time I went to see him, he’d open the door with the biggest smile you would have ever seen in your life. He got me through my Leaving Cert, he got me through funerals and anniversaries, he was always there for me. And I will never be able to fully describe how sweet and gentle and hilarious this boy was.
Karl died in January this year, and I’m still in shock. I miss him every day, and I see him in everything I do. And it breaks my heart that he doesn’t get to live the rest of his life, because he was amazing, and he would have had the most beautiful life, and would have brought joy to so many people, I know that.
(Dearbhla)
On the 24th of January 2018, my Dad took his own life.
Like most teenagers, I had a complicated relationship with my dad. He was passionate, determined, stubborn, kind, clever, honest, but most of all loving and proud of the life he had built. When he died, not only did I lose the father I had, but I also lost the possibility of having a better relationship with him. I always believed that we would grow closer as I grew up. And there are certain things I just assumed he'd be there to do, like giving me driving lessons or walk me down the aisle.
Unfortunately, my Dad is one of many who lost their battle with mental health. In 2018, 352 suicides were recorded in Ireland. Knowing the profound impact that suicide has on the lives of my friends and family, figures like this scares me. The kind of grief that is felt after losing a loved one to suicide is hard to put into words. There are questions that will never be answered and so much confusion and anger around how unnecessary it all feels.
As the last person who spoke to my Dad before the left the house on that day, I found myself wondering whether there was something I could've done to stop it, something I could've said to him. This is something that I wish no one else would have to go through.
And that's why Aoife and I, who are in no way athletic or cyclists for that matter, are doing this. Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland are taking imperative action to save the futures of those who otherwise may not have one and keep families and friends from experiencing the kind of pain that we (and so many others) have. So, I encourage you to donate whatever you can.
So there are our stories. And sadly, there are thousands of these stories in our country. But, these are not numbers. These are people. And sadly, these numbers can be children. Who should be playing, and laughing and going to school, and imagining their futures and making friends. They should neither be deciding to end their own lives, or have to go through the trauma of recovering after their friend or sibling or classmate has taken their life.
So we are cycling to raise awareness, and any support at all, no matter how small will be greatly greatly appreciated. And if you get stuck behind us when we’re cycling our 100km I’m very sorry, we’re trying our best.
Thank you so much for reading our stories, and thank you all for your support. Mind yourselves.
In memory of Thomas, Peter and Karl x
Fundraising team: Aoife and Dearbhla (2)
Aoife Byrne
Organizer
Dearbhla Byrne
Team member