Darkness Into Light 2014 #BEDM

I’ve spoken briefly about Darkness Into Light in my World Suicide Prevention Day post. It’s a 5km walk and run, organized by Pieta House, a suicide and self-harm awareness organization. The idea of the walk is that you start at 4am while it’s dark and by the time you’ve finished the sun has come up and it’s light. It’s a fantastic walk, this was my 3rd time doing it and my 1st time abroad. London’s walk was in Cricklewood and the turn out was pretty good, especially considering it’s the first year and it was pouring rain! Darkness Into Light started in 2009 in Dublin, with 200 people walking that year. This year, it’s 6th year running, there were 37 locations across Ireland, 2 abroad (London and Sydney) and an estimated 80,000 people turned out, which is just phenomenal. And apparently Irish communities in New York and Boston have expressed an interest in hosting an event next year, which would be amazing.

Start and end location of the walk, The Crown in Cricklewood

Suicide awareness is so important. In Ireland, more people die by suicide than in car accidents and yet there is still such a stigma attached to mental health and suicide. Most likely you have been affected some way by suicide or at least know someone who has. This May is Green Ribbon Month in Ireland, with the aim to get people talking more openly about mental health. I think it’s a fantastic idea and hopefully it will pick up as much popularity as Pink Ribbon Month has over the years.

You can donate to Pieta House here, it’s a very worthy organization.

     

Just before leaving; Delighted to be almost finished

 

At the finish line; well deserved breakfast!

25 Before 25: Host a Tea Party/Host a Fundraiser

I knew from the beginning of my 25 Before 25 that these two entries would be together. I’ve wanted to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month for a while now, it’s something close to my heart after seeing my Nana die from it and seeing other family members battle it. I had seen the Get The Girls ‘Round campaign last year and thought it was the perfect idea. Straight away I knew I wanted to do a tea party, it was perfect for all ages and I could bake away to my hearts content! Here’s some of the pictures from the event.

Those adorable bun cases above (and in the 3rd photo) were very kindly sent to me by Orla from Irish Girl in London.

As you can see I went with the pink theme. I made the bunting above in the second photo, as well as a skirt for the occasion (which I will do another post about!). We had some jazzy tunes playing and I had collected tea cups from charity shops all through the summer. Local businesses kindly donated gifts towards a raffle and since people brought along a load of other baked goods (we had another table covered in goodies!), we had an impromptu bake sale the next day after Mass. I have yet to finish counting the money raised, as I keep getting donations in, but so far we’ve raised in around the 500 Euro mark! Very happy with that, I was hoping to get around 200 Euro so I’m delighted.

And here’s a shot of the aftermath!

That doughnut looking cake in the background was delicious and I will have a separate post with the recipe for that!