No call for help goes unanswered

July is the month when we focus all our awareness raising and fundraising activities and the 24^th July (24/7) is when we host ‘The Big Listen’ events to get out and meet the public. In London our focus was on Waterloo Station where approx. 200 volunteers from across London came together to raise awareness and funds for our charity. We were at the station from 7am to 7pm so it was a long and hot day but with lots of musical acts helping to keep the public entertained we had a lot of fun. 

In Limbo

In August we had the great pleasure of working with Sevenarc Productions on their new play called ‘In Limbo’. This was written with the guidance of Samaritans media guidelines for dramatic productions. It features James, a male character who lives with suicidal thoughts and feelings and we see him go through a series of flashbacks that have led him to the point of wanting to take his own life. It was an enormous pleasure to be able to work with the writers, who also made up the cast. The work was performed for the first time ever at the Camden Fringe and was extremely well received with nearly every seat sold across five performances. The cast were extremely generous in mentioning our support at the end of every performance and we were in the theatre reception ready to collect money after the performance. Sevenarc are now looking at potentially taking In Limbo on a tour of schools and other institutions and we hope to be able to support them with this.

Thames Bridges Trek

Our amazing volunteer Trudie completed the 25k Thames Bridges Trek to raise money to keep the branch open around the clock.

Afterwards Trudie said: "I so enjoyed the walk, the weather was just right for walking and the atmosphere was fantastic. I met some great people raising money for all sorts of charities, big and small. Whole teams of people walking together, or people on their own walking for a loved one or a tiny charity close to their heart. 4,000 people took part and we criss-crossed the Thames over
16 walkable bridges from Putney Bridge to Tower Bridge covering 25k. It’s a fascinating, ever-changing walk and I really recommend it if anyone fancies doing it next year!

Notting Hill Carnival

For the first time in a long time Samaritans had a presence at the Notting Hill Carnival. This event took place over the bank holiday weekend and we were able to raise awareness of our service to a whole new audience. After being invited to attend by the organisers, our volunteers from across the London region were able to hand out cards and leaflets and chat to Carnival goers. The carnival organisers were extremely complimentary about our volunteers and we will be meeting with them soon to start planning for our presence at the event next year.

The Office for National Statistics has recently realised new data on numbers of suicides.

There were 6,859 suicides in the UK and Republic of Ireland in 2018. The suicide rate's increased in the UK by 11.8%, the first increase in five years, and the rate for young women is now at its highest on record.

 Having seen this worrying trend increasing in the last year, it becomes essential to raise awareness of Samaritans at all levels so that people know they can reach out to us if they're going through a rough time.

We are pleased to see that many companies from different industries are interested in the work we do. We deliver talks on emotional wellbeing and active listening during World Suicide Prevention Day.

This not only gives us a great way to raise awareness but we can charge companies for public speaking events so it’s also a really good fundraising opportunity.

These most recent figures show we still have much work to do to achieve our vision that fewer people die by suicide.