Walking to remember her mum and to raise suicide awareness

Wendy knows too much about suicide. It has already affected her family too many times.

Wendy says she sees the Walk Through The Darkness as a way to honour her mother. Picture: Dean Martin

Wendy knows it’s going to be an emotional morning. On Saturday, for the first time she is taking part in the annual Anglicare Walk Through the Darkness, which remembers those who have lost their life to suicide.

Wendy will be thinking about her mum Hazel, who ended her life aged only 60 in 2017, on the walk which starts at 5am Saturday and marks International Survivors of Suicide Loss day.

Wendy will be walking to a service at Henley jetty, not only to remember her mother but also to raise awareness and to talk about suicide.

“If you really want to see change or improvement, then I see it as sort of to honour my mum and it’ll create something slightly positive out of a really awful situation,’’
Wendy said. “It will be a really supportive event for people that are bereaved by suicide to feel looked after and able to share their stories.’’

Wendy knows too much about suicide.

Her mother took the decision to end her life. Two of her mother’s sisters also died by suicide. One sister was aged 54 and the other was 37.

The eldest of the sisters took her own life shortly after her son also died from suicide.

But it wasn’t until after her mother’s death that Wendy, a 20-year health professional, learned from Anglicare’s suicide bereavement program that people who are bereaved by suicide loss are at higher risk of taking their own lives themselves.

Wendy said she wished she had known that earlier as there had been no other warning signs.

“I talked to her every day, I’d seen her two days previously, I had no indication that that’s where she was at,’’ she said.

“She was retired, she was living what we thought was pretty much a happy life’’.

They had talked about the decisions taken by her sisters but Wendy said her mum had “she promised me she never would, and she would reach out for help’’.

AnglicareSA suicide prevention services manager Michael Traynor said the ripple effects of suicide are “varied, with research showing that one suicide can impact up to 135 people’’.

“This is why we believe access to bereavement support is vital, as is greater public conversations around suicide and risk,’’ he said.

Wendy believes speaking about suicide is important to raise awareness and to prevent other tragedies.

“Suicide, obviously there’s a bit of a taboo, but it’s something that we need to talk about more openly as a society and as families,’’ she said.

This year’s Walk Through The Darkness event will commence at 5.00am, at a choice of two locations – Tennyson Beach or West Beach. Groups will walk towards Henley Jetty, through the darkness and into the light of dawn. The walk will end at 6.30am for a Remembering Service at Henley Square, adjacent to Henley Beach.