Carlisle United and Cumbria will be at the heart of a major suicide prevention event this year – which will see a symbolic baton passed around the county.

The Baton of Hope movement aspires to a zero-suicide society by raising awareness, promoting avenues of help and removing the stigma from the subject.

After an inaugural tour in cities in England and Scotland in 2023, Cumbria will host its first relay in September which will see a baton passed along various routes between west Cumbria and Carlisle.

Each person taking part in the poignant baton relay will be someone either bereaved by or a survivor of suicide.

Brunton Park will be a key staging post when the baton reaches Carlisle, and United hosted a talk about the Baton of Hope before Saturday’s game against Bradford City.

Lisa Birdsall, representing the charity, spoke movingly about her own experience and why she was determined that the Baton of Hope should come to her home county this year.

She lost her brother Stephen to suicide in 2015 and has since campaigned passionately on mental health and suicide prevention.

“It is the most devastating grief that you could ever come across,” she said, speaking in United’s Study Centre, in an event hosted by the club’s Community Sports Trust. “And it's a grief that never ever ends.

“It's always there. It’s nearly ten years now and I still go back into year one sometimes, because it's just a different type of grief.”

Lisa said her own experience combined with Cumbria’s suicide figures made her determined to see the Baton of Hope come to this county.

Areas of Cumbria have among the highest suicide rates in the United Kingdom.

Lisa was a baton bearer in the 2023 Baton of Hope relay in Newcastle. “I just wanted to be a part of the movement because something needs to be done differently to effect some change,” she said.

“Last summer, they announced they were putting on a second tour. By hell or high water, I wanted it to come to Cumbria, because we are far too often overlooked as a county – and we’re in desperate need of some change.

“I submitted a bid, and that bid was accepted for Cumbria.”

The Baton of Hope will be touring Cumbria in September (Image: Baton of Hope)

Lisa made the case for Cumbria to Mike McCarthy, one of the founders of the Baton of Hope and who lost his son to suicide. He and Steve Philip, who was similarly bereaved, became advocates for change in the UK’s suicide prevention policy, and gained government support for the Baton of Hope campaign.

“In Mike’s son’s suicide note, he talked about there being no access to mental health services and that this needed to change. So Mike put forward the Baton of Hope charity and as a vessel to flip the script on suicide as a topic.”

Lisa said the fact the baton relay involves people affected by suicide makes it a “very poignant” event that brings people together. The initiative aims to bring together many of the agencies and sectors already working in the field of suicide prevention.

“Together I think we're going to make a really, really big impact where people are going to see just how much support and help is out there, to try and negate the figures that we've been seeing year on year,” she said.

The 12-hour route on Sunday, September 7 will start at the Sellafield Centre of Excellence in Cleator Moor and stop at various points in Copeland, before heading to Penrith and then Carlisle.

On the walking parts of the route, baton bearers will carry the baton for a quarter to half a mile before passing it on.

It will take in places such as the Goodlives Project at Westlakes Science Park, Whitehaven Rugby League Club, Hope Haven and the Beacon at Whitehaven and then will be transported by Blood Bikes Cumbria to Bassenthwaite Lake and then to Penrith, where a tractor convoy will represent the farming community.

It will then move north to Carlisle, where Brunton Park will be its first staging post in the city where the Community Sports Trust will stage an event marking the baton’s arrival.

From there, the baton will be taken to Carlisle East Fire Station, the University of Cumbria’s Fusehill Campus and the Cumberland Infirmary before culminating in an event at Carlisle Castle.

Along the way there will be talks and events promoting mental health, while at The Beacon there will be an attempt at a Guinness World Record for the longest daisy chain, made with cardboard links, on which messages of hope from school children will be written.

“We are wanting to showcase that there is hope out there,” added Lisa.

“When we started looking at what was available in Cumbria alone for mental health and suicide, there were hundreds of things.

“But at the point in time when somebody's in crisis and that that is the avenue that they're going down, they don't think to go and have a search on Google and so on.

“So this is about showcasing all the different elements in Cumbria that can help. And it’s about normalising conversations, because why aren't we talking about it? It's a proven fact that if we talk about it, it can reduce the numbers. It's a remedy.

“We’re trying to flip the script from despair to hope.”

Lisa added that being involved in the previous Baton of Hope relay had underlined how many people suicide affects.

“I only know what my pain and grief has been like, losing my brother. And I've seen my parents fall apart,” she said.

Lisa lost brother Stephen to suicide in 2015 (Image: Baton of Hope)

“I fell apart for a good five years. I just wasn't a functioning member of society. So to come back and join the fight means a great deal for me.

“I have noticed in the last 12 to 18 months that people are wising up, that something needs to happen here. Because I think you'd be hard pressed to find somebody in Cumbria that hasn't been affected, that doesn't know somebody who's died by suicide. And we need to talk about it.”

At the end of the relay, Carlisle Castle will be illuminated in blue, and there will be music and entertainment as well as a showcase for the many local organisations that work in this field.

The Baton of Hope are also seeking sponsors for the Cumbrian leg of its 2025 tour.

For more information on the Baton of Hope, visit its website HERE