Mother whose daughter (11) took her own life launches vital support group

MILLY TUOMEY’S mother felt there was “nowhere to go” after charity Console closed and so she established her own suicide bereavement support group.

Fiona Tuomey is marking her daughter’s 15th birthday by launching Ireland’s first peerto-peer suicide bereavement support group. Fiona, from Templeogue, Dublin, chose tomorrow to unveil the group she founded after Milly’s suicide when she just 11.

The charity – Healing Untold Grief Groups (HUGG) – will be celebrated with an art exhibition at St Andrew’s Resource Centre, Pearse Street, Dublin, from 5pm.

“Milly was six weeks from her 12th birthday when she died,” Fiona said. “It’s her 15th birthday. I deliberately chose that day to launch HUGG, as we never celebrate her birthday but we do, as a family, try to remember the joy of the day she was born.”

Fiona founded the group after she found there was no peer-to-peer support. Not long after Milly’s death, suicide bereavement charity Console became embroiled in controversy and closed.

“Console could have helped,” Fiona said. “One of the members in our group had been to the Console bereavement group and it really helped her, she stayed in touch informally with the groups. It’s been a lifeline. But when I found there was nowhere to go, I felt I had to create somewhere.”

Fiona, studying for a Masters degree in loss and bereavement, said being part of a support group meant there were “people who keep you going”.

She feels the health system is still a “maze”.

“You have to wait for help, it’s a postcode lottery,” Fiona said. “Milly should be here today, our beautiful, intelligent girl, a force of nature. Milly wasn’t tragic.

“She was really funny, a great mimic, bright as a button, loud and she loved life and her sister, Daisy.”

More than 110 pieces of art including fine art etchings, paintings, sculptures and photographs for the event have been donated by artists and the exhibition has been arranged by artist and HUGG member Nicola Morrin.

For more information, visit www.hugg.ie

PHOTO: MARK CONDREN Supportive: Fiona Tuomey at the St Andrew Resource Centre in Dublin, where her support group will be launched this weekend. Below: Milly Tuomey.