A Darwen Mental Health talking group hosted a Walk in Unity for World Suicide Prevention Day on Saturday despite the original event being postponed.

Talk Ourselves Well, founded by Si Donnelly, 48, is a group trying to get people to talk about their mental health.

They decided to host the walk after the original event hosted by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council was postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Si said suicide "doesn’t have day offs", so he wanted to do the walk regardless.

He said: “Initially I was due to take part in the Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s World Suicide Prevention Day event.

“So, we had arranged to do two vigils, one in Blackburn and one in Darwen and we had been invited as the Talk Ourselves Well group to walk with other male groups who are in the area, and walk with a flame between the town centres and I was due to do a speech.

“However, because of the Queen’s death the council decided to postpone the event.

"My thinking was, suicide doesn’t have any days off, so I quickly organised a walk in unity starting in Blackburn town centre and ending in Darwen town centre.

“On a Saturday we do something called the All Bloke Walk and Talk, so the walk that we normally run we substituted to do the walk between the vigils, but then when that event was postponed, we decided we were still going to do it.

“Eleven started the walk in Blackburn, with representatives from Creative Football, Lancashire MIND and Shine Coaching and then we picked up a few people along the way and then when we got to Darwen there was about 40 people who turned up.

“It was last minute, but we wanted to get the word out that the work continues regardless of what happens.

“It was a success, along the way there was just constant honking off horns and people shouting well done lads.”

Talk Ourselves Well was created off the back off two of Si’s friends taking their own lives, with nine months between their deaths.

Si said he had had enough and wanted to do something to prevent suicide, he decided to use his voice and created Talk Ourselves Well in 2020 to try and engage people in just talking openly about their experiences and challenges with mental health.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men aged under 40, and the North West has the second highest suicide rate in Great Britain.

For more information on the various events the group hosts, go to Talk Ourselves Well on Facebook.