The 5asideCHESS team set out on the Battling Suicide Tour on July 19th, raising awareness of suicide prevention and promoting good mental health. All through building connections and chatting.
And after two weeks are happy to confirm a residency at the:
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at the GrassMarket from August 6th to the 31st
Close to 6,000 people in the UK take their own lives every year. The actual number of people effected is astronomically higher than that, as we have been finding out.
We are going to actively fight that number by getting people talking across the nation, and we need your help. Come and join us along the way like the hundreds that already have in:
- Braintree
- Cambridge
- Sheffield
- Doncaster
- York
- Bishop Auckland
- Durham
- Sunderland
Our Battle Bus has turned into a Memorial for those that we have all lost to Suicide.
We are going to actively fight that number by getting people talking across the nation, and we need your help. Come and join us along the way, share you stories or just have a cup of tea and a chat. You can contact us directly right HERE.
Talking of numbers, isn’t it time we started talking about the people. Of the 5,965 people that committed suicide last year, 4,508 were sons, brothers, uncles and fathers. The remaining 1,457 were all daughters, some of them mothers, many of them sisters and aunties.
Let’s fight this together.
The second leg of the journey will head back down the west of England, taking in cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol before finishing in Bath.
The two man team, Ross and Ryan, will be visiting cafes, community centers, festivals, businesses and all sorts of other places along the way. They will be talking with all sorts of experts and people that have been directly affected by this cruel and often avoided and avoidable issue.
Every leg of the journey will be logged on the 5asideChess Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
There will also be regularblog updates right here at 5asideCHESS.
If you want to meet up and get involved then you can contact via the Get in Touch page or directly to [email protected]. Below is a map of where Ross and Ryan will be during the tour and how close they will be coming to you.
So Where did this Idea Come From?
Our focus during the past six months has been on fighting social isolation and loneliness. We’ve had great success in bringing people together and actively improving their mental health, but we need to spread the message more and get more people back into the ‘art of conversation.’
After all, it’s been well documented how much community and connections can improve both the physical and mental health of just about every demographic.
It’s not just a ‘feel good’ project though. Mental health is the biggest cause of ‘lost’ workdays in the UK, costing the economy around £30 billion every year, according to government figures.
So there’s really no excuse for us not to get out into the UK and get more people talking with our 5asideCHESS boards.
And, even though workdays are important, we also want to address the most severe problem with poor mental health. Suicide.
Can you help us do that?
Last time we went on tour we got in a little bit of trouble