By BRIDGET SCOTT
SALLY Webber and her family are one of many from the area which have been touched by suicide, and when it affected her family more than once it prompted this local mum into action.
Ms Webber’s family were touched quite closely by suicide in 2012 when a family friend’s daughter passed away.
“(We were) so intimately involved and we had never, ever thought it would come in and touch us the way it did,” she said.
“It was a huge thing we had to get over and move through.”
Ms Webber said that since then her daughters had been affected again and as a result she organised an Out of the Shadows walk at Akoonah Park, Berwick.
Run by Lifeline, Ms Webber said the organisation was very supportive of helping her bring this event to the City of Casey.
Ms Webber, who also runs the Berwick Aus Kick Clinic, said she wanted to find a positive way to help create change and raise awareness.
“How could I do something that would create change, and help get people to support and get their grief out,” she said.
“I am a bit of a loud mouth and like to get out and do things.”
Last year, the event ran at Akoonah Park for the first time and Ms Webber said it was an “amazing morning”.
Ms Webber said the main idea is to create a respectful day, and after the success of last year’s event she has decided to do it again.
“It’s honouring people that have sadly been lost, and those that have grieved,” she said.
The walk will take place on Saturday 6 September, at 9am, around Akoonah Park at no charge to participants.
Ms Webber said interested participants can pre-register on the Lifeline website, and that the walk was in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention day on 10 September.
She added that any donations would be accepted and go straight to Lifeline, and that coffee and tea will be available on the day, as well as a sausage sizzle.
