On the 29th of January 2010 my perspective on life changed forever. That was the day my little brother decided that his life was too hard, difficult and painful to continue. In the first few weeks after his death I kept waiting for someone to step forward and make everything ok again. Surely this was a joke, right? Pete was going to come home with a massive hangover, right? My kind, gentle, quiet, smiley, shy, thoughtful little brother was going to be around forever, right? Wrong. 



Pete was missing for five days. I have never felt such despair and helplessness. I watched my whole family deteriorate in front of my eyes with every passing hour. We had a wonderful support group of friends and extended family who rallied round and helped to keep us going. But as each night drew in we knew our chances of a happy outcome were diminishing. The first day was the most frustrating - the police had all available officers searching but it just wasn't enough for the terrain. We often say "its a small world" but let me assure you, when you are looking for a five foot six, eight stone, twenty-four year old in rural Cornwall, the world seems enormous. 

On the second day, the cavalry arrived – the Cornwall and North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Teams. Just seeing them arrive in their droves, setting up their vans and radio systems gave us the much needed reassurance that everything that could be done was being done. I must confess that at that point I couldn't care less who they were and where they had come from. One thing and one thing only was driving me and that was finding Pete. I discovered later that the teams, in total, searched a massive area surrounding where Pete had last been seen. This area included rivers, woods, train tracks and farmland. The weather at the time was horrific, deep snow, rain, hail-storms and constant freezing temperatures. However, for as long as the police needed them to help search, they came, from first light till dark. They weren't successful in finding Pete, he had concealed himself in a place none of us would have ever connected him to, to spare us, his family the trauma of finding him ourselves.. 

Throughout Devon and Cornwall these teams are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are all volunteers who buy their own equipment. They don't have a rota system; they all get called out to every job. They have no central funding. However, in any rescue situation, from missing people to stranded people, in the two counties they are the first point of contact for the police. They are a 999 service. During our time as a fundraising group (2010 – 2014) we are extremely proud to have donated over £9k to Cornwall Search and Rescue which has purchased items such as a Land Rover (the Dragon Wagon) and a defibrillator (Dragon Heart).

Bereavement after suicide is an extremely painful experience, which brings with it trauma and shock. I was at a loss with how to cope with my own feelings let alone that of my children who were aged 20, 15, 13 and 11. Pete had been a model uncle, involved in everything they did. Thank goodness for my GP referring me to Balloons, a specialist child bereavement service. Their advice was crucial in the early days in answering practical questions; should I take them to the chapel of rest to say goodbye? should they attend the funeral? They gave me expert and practical advice on how to deal with questions and reactive behaviour. My children received one to one counselling, the opportunity to meet other children in a similar situation but also some fun activities to help them understand that its ok for life to "go on". We are extremely proud to have donated over £1500 and even more proud to now work alongside them supporting young people in Devon bereaved by suicide

In 2015, everything changed. I have always made a point of doing special things on Pete’s Birthday. I had a lovely trip away planned but it was cancelled and rebooking slipped my mind. I woke up in the morning and realised what day it was. What was I to do? It was too late to arrange anything. An idea popped into my head…before I could talk myself out of it I rang the local airfield and booked a skydive for a future date for 10 people. I launched the campaign to find those ten people and ended up with 30 divers!!!! The skydive changed the face of Pete’s Dragons forever, it changed our focus with us deciding to donate half of the skydive money to Samaritans, it also brought in an amazing family of Dragons who have stayed in touch and continue to help us in many different ways as often as they can. We realised it was decision time. Do we stay as just a fundraising group or do we become a registered charity and undertake our own projects? It was a no-brainer, Pete’s Dragons have always enjoyed a challenge!!!!!