2022 Winner
PRIDE OF MANCHESTER
Mike Palmer
Firefighter who lost his daughter to suicide, and teamed up with other grieving dads to raise awareness and provide support.
Mike, a firefighter at Manchester Airport, has devoted his life to raising money for others. When his daughter Beth took her own life in March 2020, aged just 17, that mission became personal.
Beth was a budding performer, singer and dancer, with a vast friendship group and active social life. “She had an amazing talent for acting, dancing and singing. She played gigs, and had just signed her first record deal – Beth had the world at her feet,” explains Mike.
But when lockdown began Beth saw her life changing. “She hated the fact that she could not finish and graduate college. All her plans – like her 18th birthday party – concerts, festivals and her work as a singer were being cancelled one by one, and in addition she was unable to see her friends,” he says.
The loss of their daughter devastated the family and their wider community. Through the charity PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide, Mike met two other dads who were grieving the loss of daughters in similar circumstances. Together they came up with a plan to raise awareness, money and to build a remarkable legacy for the daughters they had lost.
Mike, and the two other bereaved dads – Andy Airey and Tim Owen – decided to complete an epic 300-mile walk over 15 days between their homes in Greater Manchester, Cumbria, and Norfolk. They called themselves ‘3 Dads Walking’ and celebrities including Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Lou Macari donated, with the fathers eventually raising more than £800,000 for Papyrus.
He says: “3 Dads Walking is not a club I want to belong to, but along with Andy and Tim it gives us, as fathers, an opportunity to fight back and maybe make a difference.
“We are all too aware that there are more young people out there falling into despair and see no way out other than to end their own precious lives. There is help out there and hopefully we are raising that awareness of where to reach out to. There is hope and that’s what 3 Dads Walking is about, it’s about hope.”