A fundraising hike across five hills in Sussex is aiming to boost resources and visibility for suicide prevention efforts.

Organised by the national charity Olly’s Future, the event is scheduled for September 5 and will guide participants through the South Downs National Park.

The extended itinerary spans 17 miles, beginning at Cissbury Ring before proceeding to Chanctonbury Ring, then moving on to Chantry Hill, continuing to Black Patch Hill, and finishing at Highdown Hill.

A more modest six-mile alternative focuses solely on Cissbury Ring.

The gathering serves as a tribute to Oliver Hare, who died by suicide in February 2017, less than a fortnight before his 23rd birthday.

Ann Feloy, who founded Olly’s Future and resides in Worthing, set up the organisation in 2020 with the goal of preventing further losses by increasing understanding around suicide and empowering individuals to feel capable of asking directly whether someone is experiencing thoughts of ending their own life.

Her initiatives resulted in the development of the Talking about Suicide: Ten Tools instructional course, created alongside mental health professional Rose Rowkins.

This curriculum has now been accessed by more than 11,500 individuals internationally.

Feloy also created the Dr SAMS programme, which is delivered within first-year studies at medical schools throughout the United Kingdom.

Her expertise has been sought by personnel at Number 10 Downing Street, and she successfully lobbied for modifications to NICE clinical guidance.

These alterations secured that in-person appointments should be the standard approach when prescribing antidepressants for the first time.

This development occurred following Oliver’s experience of receiving a telephone prescription for Citalopram without any assessment of his mental health background.

His mother explained that after taking the medication for four days, his anxiety intensified significantly, and he subsequently died by suicide.

She expressed the view that a face-to-face consultation with an opportunity to discuss suicide with a medical practitioner might have prevented his death.

Now in its second iteration, the Worthing event persists in its mission to generate essential funding and focus attention on suicide prevention.