Fuzion Communications’ Cycle Against Suicide campaign shortlisted for prestigious national PRII Award

Fuzion Communications’ Cycle Against Suicide campaign shortlisted for prestigious national PRII Award

21 May 2014

Fuzion Communications has been shortlisted for the prestigious Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) Awards 2014 for its work on the inaugural Cycle Against Suicide campaign in 2013.

 

Cycle Against Suicide is a voluntary suicide awareness initiative around the island of Ireland that first took place in April/ May 2013, with the aim of raising awareness for the help and supports available to those battling with, or at risk of, depression, self-harm, and for friends and family bereaved by suicide. It was created to ‘break the cycle’ of suicide through an all-inclusive and collaborative approach, both literally and metaphorically. In this vain, the focus of the campaign was to organise a round-Ireland cycle (1,400km) which was organised to connect and unite the entire country with the one goal and message, that, “it is OK not to feel OK and that it’s more than OK to ask for help”

 

The main objective of the cycle was to raise awareness of how prevalent that suicide is in Ireland and to encourage an effort around Ireland to tackling the problem by raising awareness and prevention, and a comprehensive PR campaign across the entire island played a pivotal role in ensuring this objective was met.

 

The aim of the cycle was to ‘break the cycle’ of suicide in Ireland, and the colloquial, yet powerful message that shoulder to shoulder, we can Break the Cycle of Suicide on our island” resonated with the people of Ireland who suffer in silence due to, or as a knock-on effect from depression, suicide and self-harm. The campaign created a shift in attitudes and perception of mental health issues and encouraged people at risk to seek help and/ or a listening ear, instead of internalising their fears and torments. 

 

Deirdre Waldron, Partner in Fuzion Communications stated “We are thrilled to be once again shortlisted for a national PRII Award, especially for our work on the very powerful  Cycle Against Suicide campaign as it was a was a privilege to work on and is such an important message to share to give people the courage to seek help. The Fuzion team, in both our Cork and Dublin offices, put a huge amount of effort into the campaign and so it’s great to see that hard work recognised through a very successful campaign, and now being shortlisted for a PRII Award.” 

 

Jim Breen, the man behind Cycle Against Suicide said “Ultimately, the aim of the Cycle Against Suicide initiative is to tackle the prevalence of depression and self-harm through an all-inclusive approach to raising awareness,open discussion and encouraging seeking . Without Fuzion’s PR, event management and design expertise, this goal would not have been achieved in the professional manner that it is. The success of this campaign is vitally important and we were delighted at the level of support it received. To be nominated for the PRII Award on top of all this is a fantastic testament to the hard work that went in to making it such a success.”