Beginning at Wembley Stadium at 5 o’clock in the morning, I walked to Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham, Chelsea, Fulham, and Brentford, before arriving back at Wembley at 11.15pm. It was all to raise money and awareness for Baton of Hope UK, a suicide prevention charity.
Every 90 minutes, the length of a football match, one person in the UK will die by suicide, sending a sudden tidal wave of grief, confusion and guilt smashing through a different family every time. In fact, for each death by suicide, statistics show that 135 people will be affected in the short term.
More than 6,000 UK citizens will have taken their own lives by the end of 2024 and 75% of them will be male. Far from rare, suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 50 in the UK, and anyone under 35.
But still, it won’t affect you, your family or your friends right? Probably not, but are you sure you’re immune to the impact of traumatic life events, such as divorce, bereavement, redundancy, or experiencing financial problems or bullying?
ThIs can be where we are most vulnerable. Only around 25% of all the people who die by suicide are known to mental health services. Somehow, suicide will enter the lives of one in three of us, and we haven’t even mentioned the 150,000 or so people who are hospitalised every year having attempted to end their life.
Wouldn’t it be better if we all learnt how to spot the signs that someone may be thinking of ending their life? Wouldn’t it be better to know what to do if you did? Every 42 hours one of our school children will die by suicide. More than 860,000 of our young people will attempt to take their own life by the time they reach 17.
If you know a person under 17, could you recognise the difference between teenage moodiness or something more serious? Most suicides are preventable. If we open up the conversation and break the taboos around the subject, and that’s why I walked for Baton of Hope.
Every penny raised will help educate, raise awareness, and point people in the right direction to help those who need it the most. At the end of the epic 40 miles, the last two were the worst because while I was prepared for sore feet and aching muscles, I started to become dizzy, feel nauseous and I was staggering about like I’d just left the pub. My legs had absolutely nothing left in them.
Luckily, although I’d completed most of the walk alone, for the final stretch between Brentford and Wembley, I was joined by ex-England, Watford and AC Milan forward Luther Blissett, who really pulled me through. It just shows, we all need someone to lean on at some point in our journey. Anything you can spare for Baton of Hope will make a huge difference to someone, somewhere. Maybe, one day, someone close.
Please visit https://gofund.me/7f347ad7 or Google ‘Steve’s stroll to stop suicide’
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