On March 8th 2014 our lovely son and brother Joe tragically decided to end his own life whilst travelling in Thailand - he was 4 weeks away from his 23rd birthday. As my wonderful daughter Claire has said, "words cannot express what Joe meant to us". Whilst we remain devastated by his death, each year around the time he died we aim to do something positive to improve support either for those bereaved by suicide and/or people feeling suicidal. This started with Claire and me running a 10km race in 2015 to raise money for the Manchester SOBS group and MIND, and in 2016 Claire ran the 2016 London Marathon (very successfully) and, with fantastic support from family, friends and colleagues, raised over £4,000 for Samaritans. Following in her illustrious footsteps (I hope - already in training but a long way, and at least 2 stone still to go!), I aim to do the same (but probably at a much slower pace!) in the 2017 marathon. Suicide is an issue which our society continues to find very uncomfortable, but this needs to change as it remains the biggest killer of our young men, and too many others, and affects a huge number of people.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Please don't forget to add gift aid to your donation as it doesn't cost you anything extra.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.