80,000 take part in Darkness into Light events

This year’s Darkness into Light events, which saw about 80,000 people take part in a 5km walk or run for an organisation for the prevention of suicide and self-harm, was described yesterday as an “extraordinary success”.

The founder and chief executive of Pieta House, Joan Freeman, said that, while it was too early to say how much money had been raised through the events, which saw some 20,000 people take part in Dublin alone, that the charity expected at least €500,000 to have been raised.

“We are just so grateful to all of those who took part – not just grateful from a financial point of view but for the solidarity and the sense of community they displayed and for believing in what we are doing,” Ms Freeman said.

The 80,000 participants – who took part in events in 39 locations in Ireland and, for the first time, abroad – did a 5km walk or run, with the Irish walks beginning at 4.15am and finishing as the sun rose.

Donna Maskery, whose brother Aaron Scott died by suicide in December 2012, was part of the organising committee for the first such walk in Letterkenny in which more than 900 people took part.

She said the event was important to help highlight that suicide “can happen to absolutely anybody – some people sometimes come to a crisis point in their lives and that’s it, they just need help”.

Ms Maskery said many people in attendance had lost a family member or friend to suicide, adding that, as well as raising awareness, the event was also about people coming together in support and in hope.

Meanwhile, more than 500 people took part in a walk in London. Tara Cronin, chairwoman of the Darkness into Light London committee and secretary of the Kerry Association, said it had been organised after a number of young Irish men took their own lives in London in recent years.

Ms Cronin said the walk had been supported by the London GAA community and was supported by Irish businesses with a London presence: “There was just an amazing community spirit.”

Joanna Ahlstrom was one of 16 friends who took part in a walk in Sydney, where the walkers set out in darkness from Bondi Beach at 5.15am and where participants took time to remember all those who had died from suicide.

“They had ‘hope’ written out in tealight candles and there was a speech in remembrance of people’s loved ones who had passed way,” she said.