By Gabrielle Swan
THE Bay2Bay charity sea-swim by Helens Baywatch is set to return to local waters this September to raise money for a vital suicide prevention group.
Playing a significant role in the organisation of the swim is Helens Bay woman, Gillian Armstrong, who will also be taking part in the memorial swim, commemorating two loved ones she lost to suicide.
This year the local swimming group decided to raise money for PIPS: Suicide Prevention Ireland. The charity offers bereavement support, free counselling sessions, suicide prevention and crisis aid.
Returning to local waters on Sunday, September 1st, the afternoon will be made up of six different swimming events.
The efforts will begin with a children’s race, followed by a Dip of Remembrance for those lost to suicide. There will then be the Helens Bay Classic, which is a 500m loop in the lough before the 750m Boat to Bay swim.
The main event is the Bay2Bay swim which will see participants swim from Helens Bay to Crawfordsburn and back, a distance of 1.5k.
The final race for the afternoon will be the 4x100m team relay.
To raise the needed funds, there will be an entry fee of £25 for adults and £10 for children. The event will see individual fundraising efforts by participants and an end of day raffle, featuring a number of sea-swimming accessories up for grabs from several local companies.
Opening up about her own tragic loses, Gillian hopes that the event will raise awareness, letting those who are struggling and those touched by suicide know that they are not alone.
“Suicide is something that can touch the life of anybody. It’s really tough to deal with it on your own,” said Gillian. “This is really to raise awareness, it is such a common problem in Northern Ireland.
“There are a few members of the swimming group who lost people recently to suicide.
“As for myself, I lost my friend almost a year ago, which has been extremely hard. We were very very close and we miss her hugely. She was so clever, kind and funny.
“We lost my cousin as well, about 15 years ago. It definitely makes the swim and fundraising more special.
“We want to remember them, and we will always remember them by raising funds for PIPS to help any other people who find themselves in a similar situation or struggling,” added the Helens Baywatch swimmer.
“Most of the funds will be raised through the entry fees. But people will have the opportunity to do fundraising through sponsorship forums. We will have some collection buckets and QR codes on the day, so people walking past will be able to donate.
“For the Bay2Bay, we will have two big shields for the male and female winners.
“For the draw, we are kindly sponsored by Cosimac in Bangor, who have donated a couple of prizes. Beachbouy, another Bangor company, who have wonderful rainbow coloured tow-floats, have kindly donated one of those.
“Magic5 are donating some goggles and we have a voucher donated by one of our local physios, Niall Moraghanm, who is giving a voucher for his sports therapy clinic,” added Gillian.
