Kenny will put the pedal to the metal to help save lives
Quick-thinking Kenny Dock is used to racing to deal with life-threatening situations work ing in hospital emergency units.
The psychiatric nurse, from Paisley, will now put his neck on the line driving at speeds approaching 100mph to help save lives.
Kenny, 39, will compete in the Citroen C1 Motor Championship at Knockhill and promote awareness of suicide prevention.
The livery on his budget race car is sure to stand out among the crowd as he bids to take the chequered flag.
It features the logo of SAMH ( Scottish Association for Mental Health) and highlights suicide awareness.
“I thought I could tick off a bucket list item by motor racing but do it for a good reason”, Kenny said.
“I’ve managed to obtain my race licence but I’m absolutely terrified.
“I want to stop people killing themselves and my hobby is cars.
“What’s the point of racing with business sponsorship when I can highlight this instead.
“I was already involved with SAMH and I put it to them that I wanted to promote charity through motorsport.
“The Scottish Motor Racing Club ( SMRC) heard about what I was doing and told me one of their race marshals had killed himself.
“They asked if I could help with support for their marshals and I arranged some training for them.
“Now there are 12 going on to do suicide prevention training.
A big motorsport fan, Kenny works on the mental health front line in the Charleston Centre in Paisley.
They take referrals from police, social workers and psychiatrists, as well as dealing with those presenting at A&E.
The majority of people who take their own lives are 18 to 50-year-old males.
He believes many deaths could be prevented if people were to open up and talk about their worries and issues.
“It’s all about getting people to understand it’s alright not to be alright”, he continued.
“I see a lot of people who have overdosed or cut their wrists. The staff at A&E phone me and I go up and assess the situation.
“It’s about getting people to talk about their problems.
“What we find though is that people who kill themselves don’t usually speak to folk.”
“It’s like a Scottish thing and you don’t talk about it.”
Although it’s budget motorsport, Kenny is crowdfunding as he has to stump up around £6,500 in total for the car and entry fees.
Competing cars are only allowed to have a 1-litre engine which can’t be upgraded in any way.
He has bought an eight-year-old second-hand road car, roll cage and other essential safety items such as harnesses for around £3,000.
The car is being assembled free of charge by Peacock Motor Engineers in Renfrew.
Kenny added: “Motorsport can be quite prohibitive as it’s expensive. You need money to do it and it’s an elitist sport in many respects.
“Hopefully, there isn’t going to be a lot of bashing and crashing as the penalties are strict.
“It’s budget motorsport so you can’t just have guys with too much money going out and rattling other people’s cars who can’t afford it.”
Rory Bryant, of SMRC, said: “Sadly, suicide has already impacted our volunteer workforce and we are keen to offer as much support as we can.
“The training package that Kenny has been able to pull together — in conjunction with SAMH — for our marshals, is absolutely incredible.
“Kenny’s dedication to helping others and raising awareness on mental health is tremendously selfless and admirable. We are very grateful for all his efforts pulling this together.”
Jo Anderson, SAMH director of external affairs, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Kenny is raising awareness in this unique way.
“When someone dies by suicide, it has an impact like no other.
“We wish him the best of luck come race day.”