Large crowds attend Darkness into Light

Organised by the PSNI locally and partnered by PIPS Upper Bann, more than 1,800 people walked around the lake at dawn (4am) on Saturday morning.

More supporters joined a separate walk around Craigavon Lakes in support of the Darkness Into Light campaign.

The Upper Bann area has suffered dreadfully with a high level of mental health stress.

The PSNI said: “Mental health is a devastating yet all too familiar issue that we deal with on a daily basis.

“Increasingly, helping people in crisis, supporting families torn apart by the side effects, and picking up the pieces of unchecked poor mental health is becoming one of the main focuses of day to day policing.

“It is the unchecked, the unspoken, the suppressed and ignored which does the damage.

“We want to say enough,” said the PSNI and spearheaded the local Darkness Into Light walk in Lurgan Park just as dawn was breaking, one of thousands across the world.

“Darkness Into Light” is a simple but powerful message - there is ALWAYS light if you can make it through the darkness. When you come into that light, you’ll realise you weren’t alone either.

After the walk the PSNI said: “We would like to send out a great big thank you and well done to the approximately 1800 people who came out in the early hours to take part in the charity walk in conjunction with Darkness to Light and PIPS.

“This impressive turn out only emphasizes how serious an issue self harm and suicide is in the southern area of the province.

“As one of the emergency services we take these issues seriously and it is great to see so many willing to support these areas too. The huge amount of donations will be given to the designated charities in due course,” said the PSNI.