120,000 to walk for suicide awareness. Will you be one of them?

Helen O’Callaghan meets the founder of a charity that has helped many people with suicidal thoughts and hears about the early morning walk where 120,000 people give their support

In cities across the world this weekend, from Taipei to Shanghai, from Dubai to Christchurch, people will set their alarm clocks for the small hours of Saturday morning. They will rise groggily from warm beds to gather at 4.15am at over 100 venues – the bulk of them in Ireland, 26 abroad.

Upwards of 120,000 will participate in Darkness into Light, a poignant 45-minute walk that no matter what your time zone straddles the darkness and the dawn. The first walk will be in Amsterdam, the final one across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Now in its eighth year, Darkness into Light is the annual fundraising and awareness event for Pieta House, the centre for the prevention of self-harm or suicide.