An East Belfast woman is launching a new charity to tackle mental health and suicide in her local area.
Jane Wheeler hopes to raise funds for and provide a new mental health service in inner East Belfast and the harbour area to support those going through a mental health crisis.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Jane said that she has suffered with mental health problems for 40 years and believes that while there are organisations doing great work to help people in the city, even more support is needed for those who are vulnerable, especially since Covid.
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She said there are insufficient resources which makes it very hard for the local mental health teams to meet the growing need to support people.
Jane launched LifeCycle.Belfast by doing an overnight solo ride around Airport Road and the Titanic Quarter for eight hours on February 14. The aim was to raise £24,000 to fund a project worker to run an allotment project for Woodstock Lodge Mental Health Team in East Belfast.
Jane said: “Having experienced serious mental health challenges myself, I know the importance of having support services available to you when you are most in need of them.
“By launching LifeCycle.Belfast I am hoping to raise funds to support existing mental health services in Belfast, and in particular those at risk of suicide.
“LifeCycle is still in its early days, but moving forward I would like to be able to provide crisis parcels and other support to support the work of the emergency services who are working to keep people safe in the Harbour in particular.
"The most pressing need now is to raise funds having completed the solo cycle and so if someone wants to donate they can contact me through the Facebook or Instagram pages for LifeCycle.Belfast or on 07392 396843. The money currently being raised is going to the Belfast Trust."
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