Three fathers have completed their huge challenge of walking to all four parliaments in order to get suicide awareness on the national curriculum.
Mike Palmer of Greater Manchester, Andy Airey of Cumbria, and Tim Owen of Norfolk, known as 3 Dads Walking, embarked on their newest challenge to walk 600 miles to the UK Parliaments to collect cash for the suicide prevention organisation Papyrus.
All three lost their daughters to suicide.
They walk in Beth, Sophie and Emily’s memory – but also to urge people to talk about their mental health and to call for suicide prevention to be taught in schools.
Their aim is to raise awareness of suicide – they want it spoken about in schools in a safe and age-appropriate way.
The aim is to get 100,000 signatures on the online petition so the government has to respond to the proposal and the issue can be debated in parliament.
In 2021 the trio walked 300 miles between their homes, raising more than £800,000 for suicide prevention charity Papyrus.
They also succeeded in getting people talking about suicide awareness.
Mike says the trio were “absolutely overwhelmed” by the reaction to their first walk, having set themselves a modest target to raise around £10,000.
They eventually earned nearly £900,000 in sponsorship, thanks in part to donations from the likes of film stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, and hope their next challenge will take them past the £1 million milestone.
