Blue Light Walk to March for Mental Health This Weekend
By Arran George
A 120-mile charity walk from Carlisle to Blackpool hopes to shine a light on a hidden problem in our emergency services.
On the 16 September, the city will see the start of the Blue Light Walk 2017, where a team of representatives from the Emergency and essential services, will come together to walk over 120 miles from Carlisle to Blackpool in 7 days.
The Our Blue light charity began two years ago with the harrowing story of Daniel Farnworth and his struggle with PTSD. After he was called to an emergency involving child abuse while working in Blackpool as part of the North West Ambulance Service, Daniel began to suffer from serious mental health problems and decided to publish his story through the mental health charity Mind. This was one of the first written publications of emergency service staff who had suffered from mental health problems.
Following on from this, Mind’s Blue Light Programme was initiated into NWAS. The Blue Light Programme’s function is to educate emergency service personnel to help signpost their colleagues if they are suffering with mental health problems, whilst helping to reduce stigma at the same time.
A Mind survey found that one in four emergency service personnel will develop suicidal thoughts throughout their career and 5% will attempt to act on them. This is significantly higher in comparison to the wider public.
A year ago, Dan and co-founder of Our Blue Light, Rich Morton began working together in Blackpool. They both saw the potential of the Blue Light Programme and came up with the Blue Light Walk to raise awareness of this hidden problem.
Last year, Dan and Rich were invited down to London for World Mental Health Day 2016. They joined the stage alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry to speak openly about mental health and the need for change.
Rich said: “The Our Blue Light team are incredibly excited to be walking approx. 120 miles from Carlisle to Blackpool on the 16 September, stopping off at Caldbeck, Keswick, Ambleside, Kendal, Morecambe and Lancaster along the way. Our team comprises of colleagues from Police, Fire, Ambulance, Search and Rescue and the Prison and Probation Service, who are coming together to help raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing within the emergency and essential services. We hope this challenge gets not only our friends and colleagues talking about the importance of well being, but the whole of the UK also.”
With repeated cuts and an ever increasing demand for the emergency services, showing support for those who respond to the most unfortunate situations with the highest amount of humanity is paramount to our society and a marker with which we should measure ourselves as a community.
To sponsor the Our Blue Light Mental Health Relay visit www.ourbluelight.com
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