Kindness of strangers

Over these last couple of months we've been lucky enough to receive several donations to help us with our work. 

Waitrose made us one of their charities of the month in December which brought us £441 - enough for a new data-projector.  This means we will no longer need to hire one out for our training.  I was surprised, and delighted, to see that we did so well.  Suicide is a word that I thought might put people off donating to us, because of the stigma that surrounds it, but instead we outstripped the other 2 charities to receive this healthy amount.

We were also the beneficiaries of a Charity Chuckle stand up comedy night in Brighton.  Around 60 people came out on a freezing January night to have a laugh and help us out :)  Overall the night brought in £337 in door takings, raffle charges and a donation from Father Christmas.  Yes, really.

Finally, we took £20 from a Christmas event at the Sealife Centre in a very funny few weeks where we had a Christmas tree next to the piranhas and the public popped tokens into our charity tin!

So, thank you friends and supporters, your help means a lot to us.

Offensive grafitti

Today I asked Brighton and Hove City Council to remove grafitti on a suicide helpline sign on the flyover above Brighton Marina (a local attempted/completed suicide 'hotspot').

Sign: 'You are not alone'. Grafitti: 'Jump wiv a mate'.

When I described it to the Council worker on the phone, he said "Oh yeah, I've seen that... one."   So how come he hadn't reported it to his own team for immediate removal?

Another 'sign' that there's a helluva a long way to go to dismantle the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding suicidal behaviour.

Grrrr. Rant over, thanks.