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4th August 2014
06:55pm BST

Donal and his father Fionnbar, mother Elma and sister Jema
The Donal Walsh #LiveLife Foundation
“The #LiveLife foundation was set up to continue the conversation that Donal started and to let people talk. That doesn’t take a huge amount of funding, all it takes is the petrol expenses for us to go up and down the country visiting schools and other venues.
“We have a huge amount of people fundraising for us and what we have decided to do is provide teenage appropriate facilities. Donal wanted a teen room built in Crumlin and up until the first interview, he had about €15,000 raised and by the time he died it was €55,000. That figure continued to grow to about €150,000 and the teen room is in Crumlin now.
“We’re working with Console, Pieta House and various hospices to provide teenage appropriate facilities. We’re not restricting ourselves to any county either, they’re coming from all over so we’re giving it back to all over and that’s important.
“Donal was a teenager, he had to go down to Marymount in Cork to be put onto methadone. He had to spend ten days down in Marymount. While he was there he was staying at the end of a corridor where there were ten other people reaching the end of their journey, naturally, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t thinking of death but his friends couldn’t come down to visit him as they couldn’t have craic inside a room at the end of a corridor where ten other families were grieving because their family member was dying.
“There’s a new hospice being built in Tralee and we’re put aside the bare funds to put a teenage facility there where there would be a sitting room with fold-out camp beds for friends to come and stay. So they can order pizza in, play video games and it would be a little separate to the other rooms so they’re not disturbing the other families but are still able to enjoy each other’s company.
“It’s eased off at the moment as the schools are closed but we’re already getting bookings for September. However we’re at various events, the Relay for Life with the Irish Cancer Society. He (Donal) has us going the whole time. When my brothers got older, they went for motorcycles or vintage cars. Donal landed me with a bike!”
Donal’s message
“It’s gone on a whole journey through mental health and mental awareness but Donal was actually very adamant that wasn’t what he was about. He was speaking about the knee jerk reaction that teenagers can have regarding suicide.
“They make a decision, go and do it and that’s it. Then you have the praising or glorification of it on Facebook and Twitter which really annoyed Donal. He had seen it with a friend of his in his own school, here was he trying to survive and exist as long as he possibly could and there’s three days of glory for somebody who dies by suicide.
“Then somebody copycats it. Why? Because they want the three days of glory, not realising that there isn’t a fourth and they won’t be around to get the three days of glory. That really angered him.
“There are statistics, I went and researched with Terence Casey in South Kerry. The year before Donal went on the original radio programme on Radio Kerry, there were 14 suicides in South Kerry. In the 15 months since Donal went on the programme, there were five deaths in South Kerry, that’s a 65% reduction.
“If it’s one life that’s saved, it’s worth it but if we’re talking 400 people dying from suicide per year reduced to 300 then that’s a hundred lives. We’re not claiming everything is Donal’s but he certainly did make a difference.
“There are people who say what was Donal talking about, what did he know about it as a 16-year-old. Hang on a second, he was a 16-year-old who started a conversation that nobody else was willing to and then after it, you had the likes of Conor Cusack coming out and talking about his problems and John Murray on radio.
“You had serious stars who were willing to join the conversation and a lot of them credited Donal with giving them the courage to do it. The conversation is still going on and that’s the great part about it. That’s what we’re trying to do, keep the conversation alive so that young people can turn to somebody and say ‘I’m in a place that I don’t want to be’ or ‘I’m lonely’.
“Teenagers are growing up with so much pressures, an iPhone is a television station in your pocket. You can make a film, edit it and put up on the web in a day. It’s crazy stuff, there’s reasons why schools have rules on using phones and the same goes for GAA clubs”.
Donal as a child
“He was a lovely kid, he was kind. He went to a rugby game when he was younger and it involved a bus journey down to Cork. Donal had his pocket money with him but there was one child who had forgotten his, Donal shared with him. That was the type of kid he was, he never wanted somebody to go without.
“The other thing was, he was very tall. He was a head over all his mates but he would always lean down to his friends so he could hear them at their speaking line as opposed to standing upright and them having to shout up at him.
“When he first had chemo, he put on a beanie when his friends were coming over as he knew they would be visibly upset if they saw he was bald. Once they got to know he was okay and still the same Donal, the beanie could come off but he was always thinking of others and their reactions before himself.
“He was very conscious of being the kid who was stared at in shopping centres etc, because he was bald or had tubes attached to him, he wanted to make sure he didn’t have that effect on his friends”.
“Donal was a great kid and very stoic towards the end. We have Sunday lunch every Sunday at home and family come over. Donal would sit back in a rocking chair in the dining room and just watch the banter going round the table. He was removed but yet still there”.
Donal
Continuing the conversation
“We’re regularly being asked to speak at schools up and down the country and are getting involved in various events. Elma’s next focus is climbing Mount Brandon, West Kerry. This will take place on the 28thSeptember.
“We’re assisting wherever we can and keeping the conversation alive”.
To learn more about the Donal Walsh #LiveLife Foundation, check out the dedicated website and Twitter account.Explore more on these topics: