AS FACEBAR is set to host a fundraiser later this week, the partner of the person in who’s name the movement is raising funds has spoken to Reading Today about how he wants to make a difference.
After his partner, Laura, took her own life last year, Paul began raising money and awareness of mental health issues through a charitable venture: Laura’s Lasting Legacy.
Paul explains: “The whole idea is to create events where people can get involved in and raise money, which can be tangibly spent.
“When you donate to a major charity, you don’t always see exactly where that goes– it’s a strange one, and sometimes it can feel like those situations are all talk.
“With this, I want to make a big difference in a more focussed way, where people can see exactly where the money goes.
Paul has raised nearly £7,000 in memory of his partner, but also aims to tackle the issue of mental health directly.
“Events like these themselves bring people together– people have so many of their own problems, and it all becomes a community thing where people can open up.
“They come away feeling that it was good for them, coming together with others.”
With the money, raised, Paul is looking to create a lasting legacy which will see charitable support deployed with a more tangible effect on a smaller scale, rather than spreading it more thinly.
“My situation was, obviously, absolutely horrendous, but I was lucky that I have such a beautiful community around me, and so many people don’t have that.
“Many don’t have a network of support, or don’t have the tools available to them– and that can be the worst thing.
“I found out almost instantly that if you don’t have family or friends, or people can’t afford counselling, it’s all on you– and that can be incredibly lonely.
“Not event just regarding suicide; there’s PTSD, ADHD– anything that people take too long to deal with.
“There has to be a way of making things easier, even if just a little bit.”
He also explains that while shaping a legacy of positive impact for Laura, he still struggles.
“I still find it hard on a daily basis– when you’re doing events, sometimes you bump into someone you know who maybe hadn’t heard; you go through the whole process.
“I was attending Are You Listening? [earlier this year] and it was something I found myself dreading, being there– but they really looked out for me.”
More than £450 was raised during the course of Are You Listening? Festival through the sale of art posters and ticket donations .
Facebar is set to host an evening of live music and DJs in aid of Laura’s Lasting Legacy this Saturday, where The Drop, Kill Committee, and This. will be among those taking to the stage alongside Push DJs and Ensision.
More information about Laura’s Lasting Legacy is available on the JustGiving page, via: justgiving.com/crowdfunding/forlauraj
The event takes place at Facebar, Ambrose Place, from 7pm on Saturday, July 19.
Full details and tickets are available via: heavypop.co.uk
As well as the music event on Saturday, Paul is taking on an 83-mile journey on foot from his home near Reading to Swanage on September 5– the anniversary of Laura’s funeral.
Full details are on the Laura’s Lasting Legacy JustGiving page.
