Daughter hopes to get rid of stigma of suicide

Peter Harris with his father Bryan Harris.

Lucie Fardon (nee Harris) will never forget the day she got the call to say her father had died.

She said: “When I got to the house and saw all the police I immediately thought someone had broken in and murdered him.”

Peter Harris, 56, took his own life. He lived in Southam at the time of his death.

Lucie Fardon with her sister Cherry Harris and daughter Poppy Fardon.

Lucie said: “Dad was proud, encouraging, reliable and hard-working.

“There is such a stigma surrounding suicide and I want to help to change that in memory of my dad.”

Lucie works with a charity called Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) and has so far raised more than £2,000 by running the Windsor Half Marathon.

SOBS’s Leamington branch meets on the second Monday of each month. The charity’s chief officer Eric Thwaites said: “All the people who attend the groups are helping each other through their bereavement journey. Every group is led by a person who has been bereaved by suicide, so everyone there knows they will be understood.”

To find out more about the Leamington group, call Jackie on 02476 302 969. For more about SOBS, visit uk-sobs.org.uk and to sponsor Lucie: www.justgiving.com/Lucie-Fardon