Music event in Sheffield: Helping to challenge taboo around suicide

Two local charities, Strategies to Reduce Male Suicide (SToRMS) and Gambling With Lives (GWL), will host the event from noon to 8pm, and it will feature live music, food, drink, art, a raffle, and much more. Entry is £3 on the door.

They say suicide is one of the most enduring taboos in modern society and continues to be shrouded in silence. This stands in stark contrast to the fact that most of us have been or will be affected by suicide in some way during our lives.

SToRMS: The Dan McAllister (pictured) Foundation was established in July 2015 after the loss of a young man to suicide who was aged just 19. Dan was an outwardly happy, confident, popular and funny second year psychology student who had no diagnosed mental health problems. He was not in contact with any formal services when he died. In light of this, SToRMS takes a community-centred approach to suicide prevention.

Gambling With Lives (GWL) was set up earlier this year by the families and friends of 3 young men who had taken their own lives in the past 12 months as a direct result of gambling. Chris, Daniel and Jack were all very normal, bright, popular and happy young men who had great futures ahead of them…gambling was their only problem. Their deaths were very sudden – “out of the blue” with no warning.

Gambling With Lives aims to raise awareness about how dangerous gambling can be, to reduce gambling related harm through tougher regulation, and to ensure that better quality treatment and support is available more easily for vulnerable people and for families and friends.

The families and loved ones behind SToRMS and GWL are united by shared experience, which is the loss of young men to suicide. Their deaths were all preventable. The funds raised as part of this event will be split between each charity, however the fundamental aim is to bring communities together, to remember the many much loved and missed people lost to suicide, and to prevent such losses from happening again.

For more information go to the event page on Facebook and search for ‘SToRMSxGWL: The Picture House Party’ or you can visit the www.facebook.com/events/597342430624082 website to find out more about the event and what is involved.