Memories rising from sadness...

On opening the Daily Mail today, I was saddened to read about the couple, who along with their already dead child, threw themselves to death over the Beachy Head cliffs. Beachy Head is a notorious suicide spot, so much so, that in 2004 the Beachy Head chaplaincy team was set up, whose primary function is to patrol the clifftops from six to midnight everyday of the week, offering help to those in need. Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, with their dramatic white cliffs and gently undulating downs, is an area of outstanding natural beauty and tranquillity. Quite a few years ago now, I ran the Seven Sisters Marathon; a circular marathon that starts on the eastern edge of these cliffs and takes runners deep into the chalk lands of the South Downs before turning back towards the coast and the steep climb up to Beachy Head itself and the finish line just beyond it. In running this marathon, not once but several times, I got to know the area well and Beachy Head was a spot most welcome to reach, as it signified that the race was nearly over. I've been here then, this place where people kill themselves in beautiful surroundings.