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Festival season is well underway across the globe with millions of people travelling all over for their favourite artists, so we thought it would be perfect timing to introduce this FANTASTIC cause for a much more local audience, but it is incredibly inspiring to witness.
Mike Hammond, 23, took his own life just six years ago and every year since his family and friends have come together to bring the people of Runcorn, where he grew up, a day to remember with a family fun day in memory of the aspiring musician, with this year’s taking place Sunday 24th July.
At the fun-filled day there was a huge buzz of community spirit with 100’s of people enjoying the fairground, donkey rides, live bands, DJs, bars, children’s entertainers and stalls of local businesses.
Alan Hammond, Mikes father, who was there to oversee the stretch of organisation he and all close to Mike had produced was, as you can imagine, overwhelmed with emotion at such a fantastic turnout another year running in memory of his son.
He went on to say of how proud he was of his son and couldn’t wait to show me all the places he had gigged in and around Liverpool with his band, he was BEAMING with pride.
He explained: “It’s so hard what we have been through and every year we just keep trying to prevent any other parents having to go through what we have been through.”
Mike had been performing with bands Broken Lung and Fallen Heroes and had even been offered an opportunity to play gigs in Germany, but declined to finish his studies.
It was clear to see how his friends have all stuck together over the years to celebrate the life of their close friend with each one of them wearing their slogan T shirts supporting the small non-profit organisation “Hype 4 Life” which raise awareness of suicide and depression in the youth of our society.
This type of event deserves as much recognition as possible due to the number of cases being so unnecessary of young suicides when society has made young people feel so vulnerable to expressing there feelings and emotions.
Another charity there to support the day was Papyrus, which also are dedicated to help prevent young suicide, and many people were showing their support for other local businesses also holding stalls at the event.
The whole day seemed such a fantastic success and we hope they carry on creating these wonderful celebratory days in Mikes memory as we would love to come along and see all your hard work pay off again next year and for many more years to come.