'We met as grieving dads, now we're friends for life'

3 Dads Walking - Tim Owen, Mike Palmer and Andy Airey came into the Granada Reports studio to talk to Lucy Meacock and Gamal Fahnbulleh

Three men who lost their daughters to suicide have written a book about the hundreds of miles they've walked together to raise awareness of suicide prevention.

"Three Dads Walking, 300 Miles of Hope" tells the story of Mike Palmer from Sale, Andy Airey from Cumbria and Tim Owen from Norfolk's first walk in 2021, as they attempted to raise awareness of the biggest killer of under 35s.

In memory of their daughters – Sophie, Beth and Emily – their walk took them across Britain from each of their homes in Cumbria, Greater Manchester and Norfolk, as putting one foot in front of the other, they fought for their message to be heard.

Their book, which is told in three distinct parts by each dad, has been put together from their personal diaries of the walk, and they say it is "about the power of speaking out, of friendship, and hope (and blisters)."

The dads released a joint statement ahead of the book being published: "The suicide of our daughters sent our lives on completely unexpected trajectories; however, as we have walked we have realised that talking about our girls and our experiences has helped many other families to avoid suffering the same fate as us.

"Talking about suicide prevention saves lives and in publishing our story we want to continue to spread our message of hope.

"We were (and are) three ordinary dads who found ourselves in a desperate place we never expected to be, engulfed by pain and suffering beyond imagining.

"We wanted to do something and this is what it became … what we became."

Who are the Three Dads?

Mike Palmer, from Sale Manchester, lost his 17-year-old daughter Beth to suicide at the beginning of lockdown in 2020

Tim Owen, from Norfolk, lost his 19-year-old daughter Emily in 2020

Andy Airey from Morland in Cumbria, lost his 29-year-old daughter Sophie in 2018.

A year after their first walk in 2021, they doubled that distance, walking between the parliaments of all four nations from Northern Ireland through Scotland, Wales and England as part of their campaign to make suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

Their online petition gained almost 160,000 signatures, and led to MPs debating the issue as well as meetings with the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan

Their efforts also raised more than a million pounds for the national charity PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide.

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