Wakefield mum who lost daughter and husband to suicide launches support website
A mother bereaved twice by suicide has launched a website to help other people affected by it and tackle the stigma.
Karen Sykes' husband, Ian, and daughter, Beth, both took their own lives within four years of each other.
She's now launched 'Speak Their Name' with Anna Scott from Haworth, whose daughter, Ellen, also died by suicide.
The website allows people to create personalised remembrance pages for their loved ones, while also providing a platform for connection and support with other people who have experienced similar loss.
Karen Sykes said: "Being bereaved by suicide can be the loneliest feeling in the world.
"Often even close friends don’t know what to say; and sometimes, they are so afraid of saying the wrong thing that they say nothing at all, and this leads to an even greater sense of isolation.
"Speak Their Name is helping individuals like me feel connected with others who have also experienced loss by suicide, encouraging us to navigate our grief with greater self-compassion.”
Anna Scott said: "People will have a page that they dedicate to someone they've lost to suicide, which is like a memorial page.
"They're able to submit a video, they are able to submit some wording about that person, and some photographs and also a square which is not of that person, but it represents that person."
But it's also a platform to raise awareness, with those bereaved by suicide at a higher risk of taking their own life.
Karen says the website highlights the 'urgent need for accessible support for those bereaved by suicide', after a survey showed that over a third of those bereaved were unaware of available help, and 60% did not access any support despite their increased suicide risk.
She added: "When you look at those pages, they are unique people, they are a person in their own being, with their own unique characteristics and their death shouldn't be defining them."
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