"Tell mum and Dad I'm sorry, I'm just so tired".  A sentence that is etched in my memory and will be for life.

 

23 years old, just home from a night out when the phone rings and that's what I heard my friend say.  It took a minute for the realisation to hit that this meant suicide.  My head was swimming but I had to do something; within 5 minutes of me being there, the concoction of pills were already taking effect.

 

I still think about that night.  Although a lot of it is blurry, I remember the calmness of the paramedics, the patience of the hospital staff, the walk home alone but most of all I remember the fear behind her eyes.  The "what if's" don't bear thinking about, but fast forward through the years and that friend is now my wife.  It's not been an easy road but we manage, what else can we do?  The panic disorder and PTSD she suffers from continues to dog her life and there are many days she despairs but she’s fighting the fight and putting a brave face on it but sometimes things get very dark.  For some people they will try again and will be successful.  286 people in Scotland under the age of 35 took their own life in 2011.  That's 286 too high.  So to raise awareness, and hopefully some money, for 11 weeks from 3rd of March 2013 I'm going to attempt to run a mile for each of them.

 

Any donation you make will be gratefully received and maybe together we can increase awareness of a problem so many people struggle with but don’t like to talk about..

 

Si