We lost our darling eldest daughter Emily, in February last year to suicide. I’m planning on walking the southern section of the Cornish coastal path from Lands End to Looe (about 140 miles) in May this year, to raise money for Rape Crisis England and Wales.

This will be a hard read, especially for those who knew Emily, but she was a strong and passionate advocate for women and we as a family believe she would want her story to help others. Emily was a victim of sexual violence on multiple occasions. She suffered from severe trauma based anxiety as a result of the experiences she had as a child and she found it incredibly hard to talk about what happened to her. This culminated in a stay in a psychiatric hospital , and 8 months attending a daily trauma clinic. She fought hard to recover, and was able to return to work and live independently. Emily never had the opportunity to talk to us about the events that occurred in the last week of her life. However a further incident combined with past trauma led her to take her own life.

In spite of the difficulties she suffered Emily was a remarkable woman. She worked as an Educational Mental Health Practitioner in Cornwall, and just wanted to do good and give back to society. She was incredibly smart and earned a History degree at Oxford, and a psychology Masters at Oxford Brooks. She was also a gifted pianist, an avid reader and she loved long walks; one of her ambitions whilst living in Cornwall was to walk the coastal path. She had already walked parts of it, and I want to complete the southern section in her memory.

Since her death, my wife and our other two daughters have been trying to re-build our lives. Emily was kind, loving, funny and beautiful and life without her is incredibly difficult.

Rape Crisis England and Wales is a small charity trying to deal with a massive problem. If Emily had been able to talk about what happened to her and access the right help earlier, this may have saved her. RCEW works to provide specialist services to those affected by sexual violence, to educate, influence and make change.

Rape Crisis England & Wales stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of sexual violence. Rape and sexual abuse are devastating crimes but are unfortunately not uncommon. 1 in 5 women have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult.

Rape Crisis England & Wales:

- Raises awareness of the prevalence and impact of sexual violence and abuse in all its forms.

- Advocates for systems change to create better responses in justice, health, education and across society

- Ensures that specialist support is available

Please spread this message and give generously if you can.