So this is the first blog for the 6507 web site, I suppose I’d better begin at the beginning. As it says elsewhere 6507 people ended their lives by suicide in 2018, 1 would have been too many, 20 would have been beyond belief but 6507? That’s an entire village.

If a bomb had landed somewhere in the country and wiped out an entire village there would be an international uproar, the government would be called into special session, some plan with a daft code name would be enacted and the armed services would be on standby for some horrific retaliation.

Here though, we don’t hear a national emergency being called, we don’t have collective memorial stones erected in public spaces. Families mourn their loved ones; people grieve for the friends they’ve lost. Small stones stand in quiet cemeteries.

So, we must make a difference where we can – we are not an emergency service, their contact numbers and websites are listed under the ‘Get Help’ tab.

We are here to help make connections because connections help to save lives, it doesn’t always work but it can help. It’s a start. I hope that people will come together, churches, factories, offices, schools, streets and communities to collect their 6507 whatever it is.

If it’s an open event that anyone can join in with advertise it in the events list, send us in photographs of your event, send us in pictures of people connecting. While we’re on the subject of photographs please can you send us in pictures of connection – it could be three men chatting at the bar, an entire football team, a kid with their dog, two people chatting over the garden wall.

Only rules are you must have taken the photo, you have to have the permission of the people in the picture and nothing smutty. Also if you can spare 20 minutes please take the training on the home page.

One thing I must add is that this website would not have been possible had it not been for https://www.growtraffic.co.uk/ who have designed it, built it and trained our volunteers to maintain it. A huge thank you to Simon without whom this would not have been possible.