Just amazing!

Staff and customers at the popular Booths in Burscough have helped raise almost £6,000 for the mental health charity MIND.

But equally amazing is the touching story behind why the charity was chosen - and why it's so close to the heart of Carolyn Morley who works in its busy cafe there.

This is Carolyn's speech from a fundraiser - 'The full Monty and much, much more!' held in March at the Stanley Institute...

'Not everyone knows me here but thankyou to every single one of you for coming, I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

In the last year, through Booths and my colleagues, we have raised over £3,500 and after tonight I'm expecting to have raised approx £6,000* (£5,841.56) which means in total over the last year, Burscough's raised approx. £11,000 for MIND!

Thank you for all the raffle donations and to you lot for buying the tickets! A bigger thanks to Ste and Chris who have helped me from day 1 and have never let me down, even when things have been really hard.

Currently there are over 6,000 suicides in the UK of which ¾ were male. This percentage is slowly going down and has reduced significantly over the last 20 years.

On March 29^th1999, my children’s dad committed suicide, he was 36 years of age, my children were 3 and 5. It was, and still is, the worst pain I have ever felt.

To tell my children that their dad had died is something I wish I had never had to do. I was so angry with Ali, hated him even, hated what he had done to my children. I even went off the rails for a good few years, drank too much, did stupid things and I would do anything to take them years back, but I can’t.

At one point in my madness I even contemplated suicide, to get away from my misery and my mess, but I was one of the lucky ones and quickly snapped away from those thoughts.

But the one thing I did realise at that dark time, was that I thought of no one but myself, not my children, not my family and not my friends. T

This was my turning point, I stopped blaming Ali for what he did and began to realise how hard it was for him. Yes, I still hate him for leaving the children but now I also understand what he did, and I’ve forgiven him. They say suicide is a selfish act, it isn’t, it's heart-breaking, it breaks your heart because you feel like a failure to your loved ones.

I met Ali in the Cricketer’s in Ormskirk, I already had Ashley, my daughter who is now 25, but eventually Ali took her on as his own. Sadly she cant be here tonight cause she is living it up in Jersey!

In 1995 we had Liam, who is now 23, he doted on his boy, his son. Sadly, a few years later, we split up, but continued being there for the children and also being really good friends -eventually!

The hardest times over the years have been Father’s days, birthdays, the children’s 18^thand 21^st, and when Liam graduated, twice!

It hit home to me how much I wanted him to be there, to celebrate with us. I know he would be so proud of the two of you and the adults that you have become.

If I could stop one person from committing suicide, then the last 20 years would have some meaning to me. This is why I wanted to do tonight, I need to put some sort of closure on this chapter and try to move on.

I will never forget Ali, ever, I still hate the fact that he isn’t here, I still struggle all these years on, but last year my sister and her husband had IVF and today my sister is here with their baby boy, Dillon, so, from now on, I will remember March 29^th for different reasons, for my new nephew.

Please keep an eye on your loved ones, watch for any unusual changes in themselves. Look to see if they are self-harming, or are they talking about dying? If so, take their threats to kill themselves seriously and ask if they need help.

Depression can hit anyone at any time for no reason, I’m not ashamed of needing some help; depression isn’t embarrassing now as it was all those years ago. Talk to your loved ones, talk to your doctor, just talk to someone. Always remember that these dark feelings will pass, and you can get better, just please shout for help, please.

Thank you.'

Carolyn is pictured with manager Simon Fenwick, staff and customers in the café; staff are now hoping to raise enough money in 2019 to buy an in-store defibrillator.