Samaritans volunteers across the north west and north east of England will be talking to people at railway stations in a bid to prevent suicides on the tracks.
This is part of the charity’s annual awareness month, called Talk To Us, which runs throughout July and next Thursday (July 24), volunteers from the charity will have a presence at 33 train stations between 7am and 10am – including Huddersfield.
In the afternoon they will be in St George’s Square putting on activities for adults and children to try to find out just how happy Huddersfield is.
They will be raising awareness with commuters about the importance of talking, and Samaritans’ round the clock service, for anyone struggling to cope.
Bob Howe, regional marketing officer for Samaritans in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, said: “Raising awareness of our service, during the morning rush hour to so many rail commuters is really important. We want people to recognise the value of talking, rather than bottling things up. People can get in touch with Samaritans’ service by phone, email and text, as well as visiting a branch to speak to a volunteer face to face. We are here round the clock, every single day of the year.”
Northern Rail’s Customer Service Director Natalie Loughborough said: “On July 24 our employees will be donating their time to the Talk to Us events at our stations by collecting donations and handing out awareness cards. We are proud to work with Samaritans as part of their partnership with Network Rail to reduce suicides on the railway. A fatality on the railway has a massive impact on our customers, employees, services and the wider community. Some of the training we receive from Samaritans involves learning how to approach vulnerable people, so Talk to Us is a fitting campaign for us to be part of.”
Samaritans answer more than five million calls a year from people of all ages, backgrounds and circumstances. The charity’s 21,200 volunteers deliver the service at 201 branches across the UK and Ireland.
People up and down the country can get involved by simply texting ‘SUPPORT’ to 70080* to make a £4 donation which is the cost to the charity of answering one call for help.
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