We’re incredibly proud of our sister company, Leeds-based suicide prevention organisation HelloHope which brought together more than 80 people for a powerful and uplifting event, ‘A Celebration of Hope’, on Friday 18th July at Nexus, University of Leeds, where it unveiled an innovative platform to help save lives.
The event, which raised over £3000 to support HelloHope’s lifesaving work, highlighted stories of survival, resilience, and action, featuring talks from lived experience suicide survivors and interveners.
Speakers included Jonny Benjamin MBE, award-winning mental health campaigner and a suicide survivor whose viral ‘Find Mike’ campaign has inspired millions worldwide.
Jonny was joined by Neil Laybourn, a globally respected mental health advocate whose life changed forever on Waterloo Bridge in 2008, when Neil intervened to support Jonny from suicide.
The event also heard from Sandeep Saib, an advocate, presenter and ambassador for HelloHope and multiple UK mental health charities, plus Yorkshire suicide survivor Adam Pike and his rugby coach, Bob Hood who saved him from taking his own life. Entertainment was provided from Talk Your Walk Foundation, a Sound Leisure jukebox and live music from Ben Greenwell.
HelloHope unveiled the HopeMap, the first public platform to log and showcase real-life stories of suicide interventions, aiming to combat copycat suicides, where an increase of suicides is seen amongst the general public when deaths of suicides are publicised.
The HopeMap aims to change this narrative by highlighting stories of hope and recovery, and how an intervention helped keep somebody from taking their own life.
Ellie MacDonald, founder and CEO of HelloHope, who launched the organisation last year having lost her dad to suicide, comments:
“When I first trained as a teacher of suicide prevention courses in 2023, one sentence stuck with me, that was “nowhere in the world publicly logs suicide interventions so little is known about them.” We know ordinary people can intervene and save lives and the more I trained people to be able to safely and confidently do so, and looked into the very real and damaging effects of copycat suicides, the more I knew this platform was needed.”
With 16+ years of PR experience, Ellie has combined her media expertise with her passion for suicide prevention to bring that platform to life.
The HopeMap’s first phase was launched at the event to celebrate hope, featuring stories across the UK and Ellie explains that this is just the start of the company’s innovative efforts to help combat suicides:
“I lost my dad to suicide when I was just four years old in 1989. The statistics haven’t changed; suicide is still the leading cause of death in under-35s and men under 50 in the UK. This made me so sad and I knew I had to do something about it.
“I launched HelloHope last year and spent 18 months researching and developing the innovative platform, thanks to the University of Huddersfield for funding the development, and it was an honour to unveil the HopeMap at a very special event.”
The HopeMap welcomes real-life stories from suicide survivors and interveners. The platform was developed by NoCode Ninja with legal support from Squire Patton Boggs. It received funding through a grant awarded by the Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership (HHIP), a project part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
To view or share an intervention story visit www.hopemap.uk.
