A mother and daughter from South Brent are going to take part in the London Marathon on April 23.
66 year olds Sara Weymouth and their daughter 42 year old Rachel Nicholls are raising money for the Samaritans inmemory of Sarah’s son and Rachel’s brother Paul who tragically took his own life 15 years ago aged 30.
Sara explained: “On March 17 2008 our family was torn apart with grief. Paul went missing the day before and, in our hearts, we knewsomething wasn’t right. A knock on our door at 7.50pm that day is something that John and I will never forget as long as we live, whenthe two police officers told us that Paul’s body had been found.
Paul had been a happy child (not always easy as lots of you will know), and he turned into a bright young man who qualified as a tool maker,we were very proud of him and loved him very much.
He had his ups and downs all through early adulthood but we thought he had turned a corner, but sadly, this proved not to be the case andthis culminated in him taking his own life, whilst leaving ours never to be the same again.
Rachel added “Paul always stood up for what he thought was right no matter what otherpeople thought of him, something I was always very proud of him for, despite sometimes wishing he would take the ‘easy life’ option.
“I looked forward to him being an uncle to my children as I always thought he would be someone they could turn to, whatever they weregoing through, whatever they got up to, because he was someone who had got up to pretty much everything you could imagine and still came through the other side.
“Sadly this didn’t end up being the case, he didn’t come through the other side and my children never had the opportunity to meet him.”
In the UK men are three times more likely to die of suicide than women.
Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them. Every six seconds they respond to a call for help. Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy,and Samaritans’ vision is that fewer people die by suicide.
Sara said: “We have been doing lots of training going out two or three times a week to don a four or five mile run and at weekends we run upto 18 miles.”
“My husband will be coming up to London to cheer us on and we’ve appreciated all the support from both the South Brent Runnersand Buckfast Ladies, both groups that we belong to.”
The fundraising is going well as the duo have already raised around £9,500 and are hoping to reach their target of £10,000.
A fashion show was held which raised £1,400 and there wasalso a prize bingo which made £1,193.
If you would like to make a donation you can visit the JustGiving page- https://tinyurl.com/mry4z2vd