A RELAY carrying a message of hope for people affected by suicide saw 100 local people carry a baton through the streets of Torbay today (Tuesday Sept 30).

And journalist Mike McCarthy, who co-founded the Baton of Hope organisation after his own son took his life, told the volunteers: “This is not about death and despair. This is about life and hope.”

Torbay is the only stop in the West Country for the nationwide relay in which the specially-made Olympic-style baton is making its way around the country.

The bay is seen as an ‘outlier’ for its higher-than-average suicide figures, and it is estimated that 2,700 people in the bay are affected by suicide every year.

The first baton bearer to leave the starting line at Princess Gardens in Torquay at 8am was Chris Hallett, who lost his father to suicide when he was 13 years old.

He said: ‘For me, it’s important to be a baton bearer, but being first, second, 15th, 90th, it doesn’t matter.

‘Everyone carrying the baton has got their story, whether it’s themselves that have struggled with mental health or they’ve been affected by someone they’ve lost through suicide.

‘It’s such a powerful thing to do to share the message’.

The relay was just part of a packed day of events to highlight issues around the effects of suicide.

Local hero and X Factor finalist Luke Friend was due to join comedians Marcus Brigstocke and David Arnold, along with variety artiste Ada Campe, for a gala fundraising event to finish the day.

A live screen in Princess Gardens relayed the event to spectators, while wellbeing events and activities were taking place throughout the day in Paignton and Brixham. Even local equine celebrity Patrick the Pony had a role to play, accompanying the baton along Torquay seafront.

The baton was making the journey from Paignton to Churston by steam train, and then crossing back to Torquay on board the bay’s RNLI lifeboat.

“We have all got the power to listen, and we have all got the power to save lives,” said Mr McCarthy as the relay began. His 31-year-old son Ross took his own life four years ago, having suffered with severe depression for 10 years.

He was put on a six-month NHS waiting list, but died two weeks into the wait.

“We need to remember people not for the way they died but for the way they lived,” he said.

Suicide, he added, was a ‘societal catastrophe’, and successive governments had treated mental health with ‘woeful neglect’.

“When it comes to saving lives through suicide prevention, we mean business,” he went on. “Enough is enough. Spreading awareness is central, but only if it prompts practical change and action.

“No-one is immune from suicide. It’s everyone’s business.”

Among those taking part in an event at the Lyceum Theatre in Torquay was Torbay’s director of public health Lincoln Sargeant, who told MPs, local politicians and community leaders: “The options for hope are in our hands. Today is about reclaiming the memory of those we have lost.”

Rachel Brett, who is a public health specialist with Torbay Council and leads on mental health and suicide prevention, was one of the principal organisers of the event.

She said: “I want to open up a conversation with the community, so I want people to ask people how they are, and then I’d really like people to ask again how they really are, because I think that’s the bit that we miss.

“We’re very British and we’re very stoic and we don’t talk about mental health, but everybody has it. It goes up and down.

“It’s a thing that probably connects all of us, and the minute we can have conversations and listen, that’s when we can make differences.”