Training for and completing a cycling challenge in memory of a member they lost to suicide last year helped a Mullingar family to deal with the grief.

Dawn Shaw told the Westmeath Examiner that her brother, Darren Murray, ended his life by suicide last July. “Obviously, that set us into a bit of a quandary and a path of unknown circumstances,” she said. “Then, just before Christmas of last year, my godson, Daniel Hughes, suggested that we do some kind of a fundraiser, for suicide awareness. He’s a keen cyclist, so we all agreed then that we would do the Cycle Against Suicide in Cork.”

The decision made, Dawn and other family members registered for the event, set up a fundraiser page, and got to work – on raising awareness and funds, and on their fitness.

Dawn is a member at Club Active and her general fitness is good, she said, but she doesn’t even own a bike so the challenge of cycling 42km was one she had to prepare for.

She went to the gym four mornings a week before heading in to work, and by the time the day of the cycle came around, March 1, she knew she would be able for it. Her sister Anita Murray is a member of Energie Fitness Mullingar and carried out her training there.

Dawn praised the strong organisation for the event and enjoyed cycling as part of the peloton (participants stayed in a group for safety). “There were plenty of stewards, the guards were involved, and the roads were all cordoned off,” she said.

There were other reasons to enjoy the visit, as Dawn’s father was a Cork man, and while they were there, they met other people from Mullingar, including Gerry Wallace, who was involved in the organising committee.

Dawn and her sister Anita led the fundraising and to date they are at €2,030.

Now that it’s done, Dawn is looking back and seeing how much it helped the family.

“My sister said that it gave us something to work towards, it gave us focus after Darren’s death, because the initial stages of grief are very raw, and it’s a very different type of grief, when it’s suicide.

“I lost my dad six years ago and that’s a natural progression of things, you expect to lose parents. Darren’s death came very much out of the blue. It’s it’s a very different type of grief and I don’t know if other people would understand that unless they’d been in the situation. It’s everything that comes with it, the what ifs, what you could have done differently, the guilt and the questions.

“Grief is raw and it’s ugly and it’s unforgiving. It comes in waves. It’s only been eight months, it’s still in the early stages of it, so it did give us focus. It gave us something to work towards, we were doing something positive. And if raising some money and awareness can save one life, if it helps one family, then it’s a job well done.”

Dawn insists she won’t become a keen cyclist now, but she and the other members of the group are considering doing another fundraiser, in Belfast, and “maybe get some more family members involved”.

Those who did the Cork cycle along with Dawn and Anita were Daniel Hughes, Daniel Shaw (Dawn’s son) and Ryan Hosey, and Poppy Hughes was their mascot. The supporters who travelled with them were Nicky Shaw, Aoife Shaw, Casey Doyle and John Duff.

The event they did was the Cork Mental Health Awareness Cycle 2025, a fundraising event for Cycle Against Suicide, which is a national charity (CHY 20867) that works in the area of mental health and suicide prevention. It provides education, resources, and support which empower individuals to navigate and overcome mental health challenges.