Stepping up for suicide awareness
A Great Dane called Spook is lending a helpful paw to charities in need.
The 18-month-old ‘‘pup’’ and his owner, Colleen Symon, were in Dunedin’s Octagon to raise awareness for the Yeswecare.nz campaign. That campaign features 606 pairs of empty shoes – showing the number of Kiwis who committed suicide in 2016.
The shoes were blessed in Bluff and Cape Reinga on Saturday and would be donated to charity after the tour, which will finish at Parliament on September 10, International Suicide Prevention Day.
Spook helped collect 10 pairs of the shoes – including some that belonged to people who died from suicide, Symon said.
‘‘He shares and receives love, people are so drawn to him,’’ the Dunedin woman said.
Symon and Spook were involved in collecting for 22 charities, with Yeswecare.nz and Life Matters the latest to benefit from their time.
Walking among those hundreds of pairs of shoes was Carolyn Mcmillan, who lost her sister Fiona Scorgie, 25, to suicide a decade ago.
The display was particularly poignant as her sister was an avid shoe collector, owning more than 60 pairs.
Mcmillan said she became involved with Life Matters because she wanted to ‘‘give something back’’.
‘‘I don’t want anyone to go through what we went through.’’
She had noticed a change with people more openly discussing suicide. She believed that was an important step to reducing suicide in communities.