£4,000 donation to help prevent suicides at Beachy Head

The £4,000 donation, which comes from the Bags of Help scheme, will be used to buy specialist equipment, designed to help reduce response times in reaching anyone in crisis at Beachy Head.

Gail Whitington, CEO of the Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team, said: “By equipping each chaplain with their own personal equipment, made up of powerful torches and waterproof notebooks to use in poor visibility, night-time and in the rain, these can speed up response times in reaching a person who is in crisis.

“We believe that by receiving skilled support at their time of crisis, people in suicidal distress can be awakened to hope that there are other ways forward to address the problems they face.”

Gail and his chaplaincy team conduct day and night patrols along of the area in an attempt to locate, protect and safeguard people in distress.

Gail said: “Each year, we see many hundreds of people who are in a crisis at Beachy Head. We cannot stop all deaths, but our vision is to help see the loss of life from suicide ended at Beachy Head.

“Each person who comes to the area in a time of crisis is part of a community and we would like to see that person returned safely, to be able to play their part, however small that may be, within their community. Suicide should never be an answer to a person’s problem.”

The sizeable donation comes from the Bags of Help scheme, which has been organised by Tesco and supports charitable organisations, projects and initiatives in communities throughout the country.

Alongside the Beachy Head Chaplaincy, the fund also supported the Wyntercon Beach Clean-up and Organisation Cetacea, a charity which works to protect wales and dolphins.