SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT and prevention agency Console has named Peter Roche as its 2012 national ambassador.
This year marks Console’s 10th anniversary and over the past decade it has developed a national organisation with offices in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Athlone, Wexford and Kildare which provide professional counselling and help to more than 14,000 people annually.
Console established Ireland’s first 24-hour suicide prevention helpline, 1Life, as well as charity The Three Ts (Turning the Tide of Suicide), the only 24-hour suicide prevention service in the State.
Founder and chief executive Paul Kelly said yesterday that Mr Roche, from Abbeyknockmoy in Co Galway, had been selected “for the prestigious and challenging role of representing the charity and driving initiatives that will save lives and reduce the devastation that suicide leaves in its wake” in 2012.
A Fine Gael county councillor, Mr Roche lost his son to suicide in 2010. “Like me, Peter has experienced the utter devastation of losing a loved one forever to suicide,” Mr Kelly said.
“I lost my younger sister Sharon to suicide. Peter lost his son Colin just 14 months ago.”
He said how “over Christmas, we had hundreds of calls from people, some at crisis point. One girl, just 22, was at the point of ending it all on Christmas Day. She was self-harming and in a very fragile state.
“She had the 1Life number saved in her phone, and something in her head told her to lift the phone . . . She was on to one of our counsellors for 80 minutes.
“She called us again three days later to thank us for saving her life.”
The 1Life Freephone Helpline number, 1800 24 7 100, operates 24 hours a day. People can also text the service at 51444.
Further details are available at 1life.ie.
