An Important Update

When we first planned this challenge, we intended to raise funds for PAPYRUS. Following the charity’s closure, we have chosen to support Suicide&Co.

The charity has changed, but the purpose of Team Darcy has not: to honour Darcy, speak openly about suicide, encourage people to seek help and ensure that those affected by suicide are not left to face its aftermath alone.

Why We’re Walking

This challenge begins with loss.

In 2021, our youngest daughter, Darcy, died by suicide. She was just 17 years old.

It is impossible to describe fully what that does to you as parents and as a family: the heartbreak, the questions and the relentless, deafening silence that follows. Life changes forever.

A suicide creates two urgent needs. People experiencing despair need help before a life is lost. When the unthinkable happens, those left behind need compassionate, specialist support as they try to live with their grief.

These needs are different, but they are deeply connected. Our walk carries a message of suicide prevention, while the funds we raise will help people navigate the devastating aftermath of suicide loss.

The last holiday Darcy took with her dad, Michael, was a special trip to Marrakech for her 16th birthday. It was filled with colour, laughter and life. A hot-air balloon flight over the Atlas Mountains, complete with a breakfast fit for a princess, is a memory we will always treasure.

Returning to Morocco will be incredibly emotional, but we are doing it for a special reason: to walk 100 kilometres across the Sahara Desert in memory of our beautiful daughter and to raise funds for Suicide&Co.

Why This Cause Is So Personal

This cause is deeply personal to both of us, and especially to Michael.

As a young man in his early twenties, Michael lost hope. He felt empty and directionless, fell into despair and attempted to take his own life. He survived and was given a second chance.

While continuing to navigate his mental health, he built a life filled with purpose and love. We married, raised three wonderful children and built two successful businesses together. For many years, Michael carried a quiet gratitude for the life he had nearly lost.

When Darcy died, that gratitude was shaken to its foundations. Her death brought back every memory of what it feels like to believe there is no way out—and reinforced every reason why we must keep helping people see that support, hope and another path can exist.

That is why suicide prevention will always remain central to our message.

We want anyone standing where Michael once stood to know that they should not have to face that moment alone. But we also know, from the most painful personal experience, what happens to a family after a suicide. The people left behind must somehow navigate shock, trauma, guilt, questions and an entirely changed future.

They should not have to face that alone either.

Why Suicide&Co?

Suicide&Co is a national charity providing specialist support for adults bereaved by suicide.

Suicide is the biggest killer of people under thirty-five and yet it still remains one of the hardest things to talk about. When the worst happens, families are too often left to face the aftermath alone. Behind every death are parents, partners, friends and whole communities left to grieve — a grief that suicide makes uniquely complicated. Support after a suicide matters as much as the conversations that come before one. Suicide&Co exists for exactly that reason: so that no one has to navigate that loss on their own.

Its services include early bereavement support and free-to-access, one-to-one counselling with qualified professionals who understand the complex nature of suicide-related grief. The charity helps people find a safe space to talk, process what has happened and begin developing ways to cope.

Support after suicide is an essential part of the wider picture of prevention. Timely help can protect the mental health of bereaved people, reduce isolation and help stop grief from becoming a crisis of its own.

Our campaign will continue to encourage openness, hope and help-seeking before a life is lost. The funds raised by Team Darcy will support Suicide&Co’s work with people facing life after that loss.

Why the Sahara Desert?

The desert tells a story.

It is vast, silent and unforgiving. Every step takes effort, and every dune can appear endless. Despair can feel like that. So can grief: a lonely and uncertain landscape with no clear route through.

The Sahara represents both sides of our journey—the struggle to keep going when hope feels distant and the struggle to rebuild after someone you love has died.

The heat represents pressure.

The endless sand represents uncertainty.

The slow, difficult progress reflects the courage it can take simply to face another day.

We do not pretend that walking through the desert compares with living through a mental health crisis or losing someone to suicide. But every step will carry a message: progress may be slow, support matters and nobody should be expected to make the journey alone.

We are walking for Darcy, for every person experiencing suicidal despair and for everyone learning to live after a suicide loss.

The desert can be unforgiving. So can despair and grief. No one should have to cross any of them alone.

Support Team Darcy

You can support Team Darcy by donating or by sharing our campaign with friends, family, colleagues and on social media. Every donation, no matter its size, will help.

Just £30 can fund one free counselling session for someone bereaved by suicide. Suicide&Co currently offers up to 12 counselling sessions, together with early bereavement support and other specialist resources.

You can learn about Suicide&Co’s services or see how donations help by visiting their website.

This journey is a tribute to Darcy and a promise to keep talking: about suicide prevention, about the people we have lost and about the support needed by those left behind.

Thank you for reading, donating, sharing and walking beside us—even if only in spirit.

Michael & Debbie Hollinson

If you need support now: If you or someone you know is struggling to cope, call Samaritans free on 116 123 or text SHOUT to 85258 for free, confidential, 24-hour support. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999.