A bereaved mother campaigning for improved support for people with urgent mental health needs is inviting people to attend a suicide awareness event in Princetown next week.

Lisa Pengarrow’s son Ben, 38, a medical company worker, took his own life last year and she is supporting the Princetown Suicide Awareness and Wellbeing Event at the village community centre on Thursday (September 12) from 9am to 5pm. Breakfasts are offered from 9.30am by the charity Farming Community Network.

The day will include speakers who have experienced suicide by friends, colleagues or family, talking about testimonies coping with the trauma. The event will also include professionals and taster sessions on activities such as craft, line-dancing, yoga, singing, poetry, talking and more – all designed to help deal with mental health issues and aspects of wellbeing. The event is organised by Princetown Methodist Chapel and is followed by a hog roast and music.

Sandra Dodd, Methodist lay preacher for Princetown, Peter Tavy and Yelverton, is facilitating the event.

She said: “Everyone is welcome to come, to share in others stories and see how they are coping with grief and their own wellbeing. There will be a range of information on wellbeing and metal health. If you need someone and somewhere private to speak to about your issues that’s on offer as well.”

Lisa said: “Ben’s death came as a total shock. The first thing I knew about it was when two police officers knocked on my door and told me he’d committed suicide. There was no clue that he was in danger of doing that. Like most men, he didn’t talk about what was troubling him. He had treatment previously, but this treatment didn’t stop him taking his life. We loved each other and he was a charmer with the women. But he obviously had issues and I did call the unit treating him to tell them he’d died, but they didn’t want to know.”

Lisa, a former Princetown shop worker, is planning to highlight the names of people who have taken their lives in the same way missing people are publicised by police and the Big Issue magazine. She also experiences mental health issues because of another bereavement and a previous violent relationship.

She added: “Ben’s death was transformational to me. He is our ‘missing’ person in our family. I have three other sons and I‘m always living in fear of losing another child. I lost my daughter Chloe to cot death and had an abusive husband, who’s since died, so I know all about suicidal thoughts. It’s hard to cope and think positively. I live day-to-day, but I do have support, which a lot of men don’t and grandchildren who I live for.

“Suicide is a hidden epidemic which is rarely spoken about But if I can prevent someone ending their life through helping them talk about their worries then I’ll have achieved something and this event is the first step.”