A mother of a murdered 11-year-old boy is to walk Limerick city’s famous Three Bridges in his memory to raise funds for charity.
Sonia Aylmer and her son Brooklyn Colbert, who was killed by his half-uncle in 2019, used to walk the scenic route together.
They also used to take part in the Great Limerick Run, which takes place over the May Bank Holiday weekend.
Read More: Brooklyn Colbert's mum believes his murderer was 'jealous' of love for her boy
Sonia and her family and friends will walk the Three Bridges on Saturday at 11:11am to celebrate Brooklyn and raise money for the Northstar Family Support Project, where she has recently started as a volunteer worker.
She said: “I’m doing the walk from my house to the three bridges. Myself and Brooklyn have a lot of memories on those bridges, we used to do that walk regularly, so myself my family will celebrate him on the day.
“Interacting and connecting with people helps me and makes me stronger. I found the weekend over Easter very hard because it was a long weekend, it gets harder as time goes on so any type of distraction helps; time is not a great healer, not at all.”
Brooklyn was beaten with a hammer and stabbed multiple times by his half-uncle, Paddy Dillon, 29, of Dalgaish Park, Moyross, at a house on Shanabooley Road, Balllynanty, Limerick.
Dillon was given a life sentence in jail in February last year after pleading guilty to murdering the schoolboy.
Sonia said she wanted to “give back” to so many in the community who have continued to support her through grief, particularly Julie McKenna, of the homeless charity NOVAS, as well as Kathleen Chada, whose two sons Eoghan, 10 and Ruairi, 5, were murdered by their father Sanjeev Chada on July 29, 2013.
All donations received via a GoFundMe account will go towards Northstar.
Sonia, who previously raised €3,000 for NOVAS in 2020, said she recently started as a volunteer worker with North Star Family Support Project, which provides support to relatives struggling to cope with loved ones who are in addiction.
She said: “I started about five weeks ago and I feel it has helped me, I said before that I always wanted to give something back and help others in Brooklyn’s memory.”
Posting a message on the GoFundMe online fundraising account, she wrote: “Again this year, I would like to do a walk in memory of Brooklyn, who loved to help people and this year I’m raising money to benefit Northstar Family Support Project as they assist a lot of families in the community. I know this would make Brooklyn very proud.”
Joe Slattery, coordinator Northstar, said: “We work with families effected by a loved ones drug or alcohol misuse, and we are the only service within the mid-west that specifically works with families as opposed to working with families and the drugs user.”
Northstar provides “time for me” supports for families and “work collaboratively with a lot of different services, such as the NOVAS Respite House in Newport, where a lot of our families go for ‘respite days’, holistic therapies, reiki, head-massage, etc, and really just get a break for the stresses of their lives”.
“We try to promote individual self-care as opposed to constantly worrying about their loved one and ‘how am I going to fix them’ and worrying about ‘everything I need to do for them’”.
“Our approach is ‘self-care’ first, so you can love yourself just as much as you love you’re loved one and that you put energy into your own wellness as well as trying to help the other person.”
Northstar also provides free one-to-one family key-worker supports, peer support groups, social activities, arts and crafts, creative writing, drug awareness educational programmes, and opportunities to follow a career in cheffing, as well as assisting in funding private counseling sessions.
Separately, Mr Slattery runs a private equine therapy programme in Ballina, near Killaloe, where Brooklyn’s mam has found solace.
“I found a connection with a little white foal because of what has been going on for me. I spent time with the horse, taking care of it, and it has helped me. It brings me peace, and the fact I’m out in nature, outdoors, all helps too,” explained Ms Aylmer.
Mr Slattery, a qualified therapist, “grew up in Southill and had horses when I was younger, which a lot of ways horses helped me with my own emotional release, although I wouldn’t have known it then”.
“When people are coming out to me, it is to work on emotional problems, sometimes trauma, sometimes depression, anxiety, so it’s counseling through the medium of interaction with horses,” he said.
“There is no horse riding, no horse management or cleaning out stables, or any of that; you are actually interacting with horses and what that might trigger for you or what memories it might bring up for you.”
“Slowly then, as you are working through it, the horses start representing people and places in your life, so they are no longer horses they become metaphors for these other aspects of you life that you are trying to work through.”
Donations to the 'Walk in memory of Brooklyn Colbert #forever11' can be made via https://www.gofundme.com/f/walk-in-memory-of-brooklyn-colbert-forever11.
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