Keith Duffy presents award to founder of autism and suicide prevention charity
A mother who founded an autism charity after her son lost his life to suicide has been honoured with a National Lottery Award.
Julia McKeever, from Portadown, set up The Autism Hive after her son, Luke O'Hara, took his own life.
Julia set up the initiative in 2022, a year after the tragic death of Luke, who was just 25.
Today, she was handed a special award in honour of her work - by pop star Keith Duffy.
Julia has been recognised as the Community/Charity winner in the 2023 National Lottery Awards, which recognises the inspirational people and projects who do extraordinary things with the help of National Lottery funding.
Former Boyzone and Coronation Street star Keith Duffy travelled to Portadown to present her with the National Lottery Awards trophy.
Keith has been fundraising for more than 20 years through the Keith Duffy Foundation and has worked to help raise awareness for children with autism since his daughter Mia was first diagnosed with the condition at 18 months old.
Keith said: "It's very educational for me because there are so many aspects of autism that need to be attended to that I wasn't aware of the prevalence of suicide within autism."
Keith has travelled the globe as part of his fundraising work - and most recently he went to Kenya.
Julia couldn't hide her pride at today's award but remains focused on her work.
She said: "It's devastating that we've lost Luke and really for his memory it's lovely that hope can come from that."
On her work with The Autism Hive, she added: "The hope and support is that we can have the information and to share that with parents so they can better deal with their child in the low times or the low moods they are dealing with."
Julia has been supported by Deirdre Duffy whose autistic son, Conor, also took his own life.
Supported by her family, Julia will continue to support others.
Earlier this year, The Autism Hive received National Lottery funding of £6,176 from The National Lottery Community Fund to develop a “train the trainer” course focusing on suicide awareness for supporting an autistic person in crisis. In 2023 more than 3,700 people and projects were nominated for a National Lottery Awards. All winners will receive a £5,000 cash prize for their organisation and a National Lottery Awards trophy.
Anyone wishing to seek support or information can visit charities such as Samaritans.
More contact numbers:
Lifeline: 0808 808 8000
Samaritans (Belfast): 90664422
Aware (Londonderry): 028 7126 0602
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