Mum’s horse statue trek after daughter’s suicide
Stephen FaircloughBBC News
A woman whose teenage daughter took her own life is pulling a life-size resin horse to London to raise money and awareness of mental health.
Emma Webb is taking on the 160-mile (257km) trek from Chepstow, Monmouthshire, over 19 days.
Brodie, 16, was a promising equestrian who killed herself after a riding session in March 2020.
Her mother said she had since pointed other young people towards help after they contacted her with suicidal thoughts.
“I hope she would be proud of me,” said Emma.
“You’ve got all this love inside you and it’s stuck with nowhere to go because you’ve lost your everything.
“My purpose is to help raise awareness in a positive way to make me still feel like I can love Brodie and I can help others.”
She wants people who are struggling to know that they are not alone.
Emma, from Newport, said Brodie’s love of horses and showjumping inspired her to drag the wheeled resin horse weighing more than 30kg (4st 10lb) to the International Horse Show, which they used to attend together every year.
Practising with the horse, Miles, has already got her noticed on the streets around Newport, and opened up conversations about young people’s mental health.
“The main reaction is ‘oh my goodness – I thought I was seeing things’ but it’s just a really good conversation starter,” she said.
“I thought: ‘What would be the biggest impact and make people wonder why I was walking?’ People like to come up and see him and touch him.”
“It’s pretty difficult to manoeuvre him around corners and things sometimes – obviously on and off the pavements looking for the drop curbs to go down and crossing the roads with barriers.
“He’s even been up over the flyovers over the roads as well – I’ve been pretty much trying to get used to how he manoeuvres. Luckily he’s quite good and behaves himself.”
Emma said there were no warning signs before Brodie died.
“She was such a beautiful girl – such a well-loved girl. It was one of those scenarios where I thought it would never happen to us, it would never happen to Brodie – we were as close as a mum and daughter could ever be.
“I lost Brodie on 10 March 2020 and we arranged a funeral, and then about 10 days later we went into lockdown, so everything was cancelled. I just don’t know how we got through that period of our lives.
“Losing anybody is tragic but losing your child to suicide is just incomprehensible. How you get through the days I just don’t know, it was just a state of shock.”
In 2021 she walked to raise money for the suicide prevention charity Papyrus, completing the last stretch of her 285-mile (458km) walk on what would have been Brodie’s 18th birthday.
Papyrus says suicide is the largest cause of UK deaths in under-35s.
Emma would like schools to talk more about mental health and where to get support.
“Why aren’t we doing something about it to educate them, to let them know how and where to get help and to let them know it’s ok to feel low and have low mental wellbeing and its ok to ask for help?” she said.
“I get young people inboxing me to say how they’re struggling with their mental health and messages come through the website to say they’re struggling, and although I’d love to help them and hug them and say everything is going to be all right, I can only pinpoint them to the support they might need and the charities that might be useful.”
“It’s heartbreaking, I just feel that I just can’t understand how there’s so many young people out there struggling and I panic a lot these days that other people are going to go and take their own lives like Brodie did.”
She aims to walk through central London on 13 December, when it will be particularly busy with Christmas shoppers.
“So I’m really hoping by that point people will know that I’m coming, and know why I’m walking and know what Miles is all about.”
She thinks Brodie would be impressed by what she’s doing.
“I think she’d say, ‘You’re mad Mum,’ but I think she’d be proud of me – I hope she would.
“People keep telling me how proud she’d be of me. I really hope she would be.”
If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article, information on available support can be accessed at BBC Action Line.
