Written 2 weeks ago by Angel Croitor

---

One father from Ratheniska will be jumping into his first marathon this Sunday in honour of his late son Dennis Cahill.

Richie Reid will be running in order to raise funds for Pieta House. His goal is to raise awareness that suicide is not the answer.

“We thought we had done a good job – we thought every box was ticked – one week before Christmas, the 18th of December – Dennis decided to take his own life.”

Richie says that the family constantly ask themselves if it was their fault and if there was anything they could’ve done better. Sadly, they will never know and that’s what makes matter worse.

Julieka, Richie’s wife, experienced a loss before Dennis when her father passed away from cancer. Richie tells us that Dennis was very close to him so much so that he looked up to him from a young age. That seems to be the only sense that Richie and his family can make of the passing of Dennis.

“You go through different phases – you go through grief, you go through numbness – then you go through anger – anger that there’s no goodbyes, anger that there’s no reasons.”

Richie has looked for help in dealing with his own and his family’s grief. That’s when he found Pieta House and the cause behind his first marathon.

He used to run for leisure before that and stuck to reasonable lengths. His friends from Portlaoise Athletics Club called to the house, brought him out to do park runs, and made sure to show Richie that life will go on and he needn’t talk about what happened just yet.

“You want people to act normal – our whole family hasn’t changed – we’re still the same people.”

Richie feels as if the marathon’s biggest pay off will be how focusing and preparing for the big run to keep his mind in one piece and to give himself and his family a break from the grief during the hardest months of the year.

To sponsor Richie’s run you can get in contact with midlandstoday@midlandsradio.fm for his contact details. 

---