The sister of a tragic Tayside footballer has raised £1250 to help create a Perth safe place for self-harmers.
Hollie Syme lost her brother Jack, who played for Forfar Athletic, earlier this year aged just 20. Jack died at Kinnoull Hill, Perth, after he had gone missing from his Abernethy home.
Hollie, 23, who suffered mental health problems herself after the incident, has used the tragedy to spur her on to help others thinking of self-harming.
The money she raised hosting a ladies night at Brennans in Perth will go towards setting up a safe place called The Lighthouse.
Hollie said: “This safe place is an opportunity not only for people who are suffering but for people who maybe don’t think that they need to get help, like my brother.
“It is mostly men that are taking their lives and not telling anybody that they are suffering, so it’s more of a shock when it happens.”
The safe place is being set up by Perth woman Tracy Swan, whose daughter Jodie self-harmed for 12 years and was just 22 when she died.
Tracy also runs a suicide and self-harm group in Perth through which she became friends with Hollie.
Tracy’s self-harm group first helped Hollie’s mother following Jack’s death, and then Hollie herself when she was suffering with mental health problems of her own.
Hollie said: “I was struggling around summer time to come to terms with the fact I’d lost my brother.
“I wasn’t getting out of my bed or doing anything anymore.
“I knew I had to do something about it so gave myself a bit of a project with the fundraising plans. Tracy helped me a lot at the time so I wanted to help her back.
“I also wanted to do something to pay tribute to my brother. There was no better way than a ladies night because Jack thought of himself as a ladies man. Everyone will agree with me on that.”
Hollie is in no doubt that a safe place such as The Lighthouse is needed in Perth. “If there was a safe place now I would use it, 100 per cent, and I think I would benefit from it a lot.
“Not only that but I know a lot of other people who would also benefit from a place like that, because they wouldn’t get help in any other way.
“The safe place will be a nice environment, where people can come to relax, have a cup of tea and use wi-fi, rather than going to an environment like a doctor’s surgery or a psychiatrist, which can be quite a daunting experience.
“We want to offer people a place that they’re going to feel comfortable going to and where they will be able to ask for any help that they so badly need.”
Hollie hopes to make the ladies night an annual event and has set up a fundraising page for The Lighthouse.