Mom's on a mission!

*Editor's note: Mom had to defer her marathon to next year due to injury. She still plans to raise awareness for suicide prevention, it just won't be associated with the Marine Corps Marathon this year and that's why the widget is no longer on the sidebar. Thank you to everyone who visited the campaign and provided support! 

I know this isn't kitty related but mom's on a mission and I want to help her get the word out. If you know my mom, you know she volunteers at Wayside Waifs helping other kitties and doggies find their forever home. She even adopted sisfur Mia from Wayside. What you may not know about mom is that she also volunteers for the Red Cross to help others affected by disasters. She actually started volunteering at the Red Cross before our devastating fire and because of what we went through will likely be a lifelong Red Cross volunteer. We got a lot of help after our fire and mom believes in paying it forward. Many of you helped us after our fire and we are so grateful! I am glad mom does what she does to pay it forward. And as if she isn't busy enough, she has a new mission!

On October 25, 2015 mom will be running the Marine Corps Marathon to raise awareness and funds for Suicide Prevention for First Responders. The funds will go directly to support the groundbreaking collaboration of The Sweeney Alliance and Rethink The Conversation to develop national programs to educate first responders about suicide prevention and coping with the aftermath of a suicide.

People don’t want to talk about suicide because of the stigma associated with it. It’s time to start a conversation worth having. So many people struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues but because of the stigma associated with mental health many people don't reach out for help. It's even harder for the helpers - those men and women that work in Fire, Emergency Medical Services and Law Enforcement - to ask for help. They are the helpers, who are they supposed to ask for help?

Why does mom want to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention for the helpers? You can go to her GoFundMe page to read the full story. The short answer is because she was deeply affected by the loss of 2 friends last year to suicide. You can read about one of those friends (Nico) on her GoFundMe page. He was a firefighter who lost his wife to suicide nearly a year earlier. He was deeply affected by her loss and the stress may have been too much for him to handle. First Responders see a lot in their careers but they are human too. They feel emotions that can affect them at work and also at home. They need to be able to ask for help and know that help is available. 

This is a cause that has mom's heart. She hopes it will have yours too! Will you visit her fundraising page and help? If you can help financially or even share the campaign with others mom would appreciate it!  Thanks pals! 

Here is the page:  http://www.gofundme.com/suicidehelp  and mom put the widget to the side of this blog for easy access too.