Tom died 4 years ago and many of his friends and family have
completed (and still completing) many events ranging from Marathons to cake stalls , which have made money for CALM in his memory. Each one I have tried to support, usually just through a donation, as this is the easiest to do, although I truly appreciate every single one of them.

However this year, it is the first time that I have felt strong enough to actually instigate others to participate in an event with me, in Tom's memory, who better than my work colleagues ?

Team Tom consist of Kirsty Clayton, Julian Green, Kris Dunkley, Jamie Humphreys, Chris Huke, Marc Gardner, Jim Hughes and Robin Talbot and me, Angela Gallagher and we will be walking 20 miles in the Lost Hours Walk overnight on Saturday 26th October.

Tom was always full of energy and would fill a room with his bubbly character. As well as having an inquisitive mind with an amazing ability to recite facts, he was also extremely sharp & witty and would often have friends & family laughing with his impeccable timings of delivery. His incessant talking about his passions ranging from mathematical theories, different languages & cultures to the most obscure freaky facts was so endearing that it was hard not to love Tom.
Outwardly, he was healthy & showed the world exactly that, through his enormous pleasing personality.
However, behind that façade, at 16 years old, Tom also learnt to hide his troubling, life-changing thoughts.
Tom was lucky, it was recognised through people that cared and ‘saw’ him, that help was needed, counselling & medication was offered & taken.
Ultimately his outward versus inward battled and life lost……… but not without an arduous fight.
The affect; as a mother, whose child has died, I walk a very reluctant path through life, one which I must walk mindfully & with intention. Every part of me longs to be with Tom, these days I am very impatient & angry and very much less of the smiley person I used to be. I will not 'get over' Tom's death but rather live with trying to feel his cheerful, mischievous spirit around me, I just try to live with his absence the best way I can and there is now a new me.
The lesson; Be gentle with your own fragile feelings & thoughts, know they need to be felt and heard & then ensure that you talk about them. There are always people around you that will truly see & hear you, sometimes reaching out first is all is needs.
That person that you reach out to, could be your mum, brother, friend, a close work colleague or a not-so-close old friend, you’ll be amazed at their reaction.

The Lost Hours walk is CALM's first event and is a great opportunity to deal with grief differently and defiantly. We want to smash the silence around loss, and remember our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and friends out on the streets of London. We want to be to be part of it. Team Tom are walking from Greenwich to Big Ben and back again to make change happen, and continue to grow our life-saving services. 

Thousands of lives are lost every year.This will be a chance to come together with friends, family and other CALM supporters to remember, celebrate, take action and fundraise. The event will take place overnight on 26 October 2019, the night the clocks go back.