366 sunrises in 366 days - how Frances' Every Sunrise project is helping prevent suicide

It was to be the first of 366 consecutive sunrises she would see in – every day of the year, plus new year’s day 2024.

“​It was a spontaneous decision last new year's eve,” says Frances. “I'd had quite a difficult ending to the year, a business that I was co-running had closed down and that was very stressful, then there were family health issues, and politically, globally, everything felt a bit chaotic.

“I had a feeling it could be a difficult year ahead on lots of different levels and I just started thinking about what ways can I start looking after myself? I wanted to give myself something that was a strong point that whatever happened around me in the world, and whatever was going on in my life, there was this thing that I got up and did no matter what – that wouldn't change.

“It would be like a solid, consistent part of the day where I got up, however I felt, whatever the weather was doing, the sun always rises and I would get out.

“It just gave me a positive feeling about entering the new year, having that as a commitment and something that I would share with other people and encourage other people to get out and enjoy nature, to begin their day with something of beauty.”

As the year went on, Frances decided to use the project to help raise awareness of suicide, and fundraising for the charity Grassroots Suicide Prevention. Frances’ brother Paul took his own life in 2009 aged 44.

"It was about halfway through that I decided to do the fundraising. What I was doing felt very relevant – it was like a metaphor for it. It sounds cliched, but it really was light coming out of the darkness, and it happens every day – no matter how dark, however wet or miserable the night may have been, the sun will come back. And then there's looking at it from the mental health perspective as well and I got talking to people and having more conversations around mental health in connection with the sunrise as well.”

Frances began documenting the process from the beginning, creating a Facebook page, Every Sunrise, to go with it with pictures and videos.

“That became a really important part of it for me. It helped motivate me and knowing that other people were enjoying the photos each day and it was helping to inspire other people added to my motivation.

“It also kept me accountable to doing it. I'm really stubborn anyway – there was no way I was going to give up!”

Of course, different times of the year provided challenges. While the sunrise may be later in winter the weather tends to be worse, then in summer sunrise arrives in the small hours.

"Sometimes I would question myself, what am I doing?” says Frances. “Especially when I got up at 4am and it was tipping it down with rain so I wasn't even going to see a sunrise, but I still got out there!

“I suppose that was part of the point, whatever was going on, I was going to get out. Part of it was developing that self-discipline, to just show up, and what I really learnt from that as well, was that sometimes the unexpected would happen, like a meeting with someone, or observing something in nature – something that would happen that made me think, wow, if I hadn't been here at this moment, then I wouldn't have witnessed that. It did kind of wake me up and inspire me.

“It was self-care, even though to other people it might look a bit crazy, it was actually giving me something of value.

“It can carry you through the day - having it in your mind, the beautiful colours in the sky, or seeing wildlife, especially when no one else is around, you're witness to things in a different way.

“I had some amazing meetings with people who I'm still friends with now – and they were complete strangers.”

While she watched many of the dawns from close to home, like Milton Common, Southsea seafront, or Farlington Marshes, she adds: “I tried to make it more interesting for myself to go out a bit further, like Portchester Castle or Portsdown Hill.

“I also learnt how the position of the sun changes throughout the year – I learnt that some locations were great in some months, but in others it was barely visible because it had moved around so far.”

There were also early starts in Devon, Cheshire and one memorable music festival near Bristol.

“I didn't know the area, so I'd gone out the night before and spoken to some locals about where would be a good place, as the festival was in a valley and I had no idea where would be the best location to get a view.

“The walk was about an hour, to this place called One Tree Hill, so I had to get up really early and I was aware that I didn't really know where I was going – that was one of the most stunning ones of the year. It had these amazing 360 degree panoramic views. I would never have done that before – I probably wouldn't have even left the festival site if I wasn't pushing myself to do this.”

December 31 ended on a grey day, but Frances was joined by numerous friends and well-wishers after she put an open invite out on social media. Some of them she’d never met before, but they’d been following her exploits online.

"It was a very strange feeling ending it. I actually did a year and a day because I had to start the new year with watching the sunrise as well. New year's day I went back to where I began it, on Butser Hill, it was like closing the circle by doing that.

"Then on the second of January I made myself lay in so that I didn't end up starting a second year! It actually felt wrong, it almost physically hurt to not get up. I needed to close it for the time being, but I do want to see more sunrises – maybe once a week I'll go out and do it.”

Helping prevent suicide

​Every Sunrise didn’t begin as a fundraiser, but over time, and with others asking why she was doing this, Frances decided to help a cause close to her heart – Grassroots Suicide Prevention.

Her brother Paul took his own life in 2009, but Frances’ big brother is often in her thoughts.

"It's a difficult kind of grief because it is always there, although time makes it maybe not so much in the forefront, there's times in life where it rears up again. It can be triggered by different things, it's something I'm always going to be working with in some way and to do things like this – I walked 1,000 miles in 2018 for the Samaritans. It helps in some way because it's important to me to raise awareness and I feel that the climate is really changing and people are becoming more aware.

“If there were things I was more aware of, conversations might have been had, he might have been aware of more support that was around. I would like to think that families and people now know that there are more places to go to.

“But it's still such a crisis, and the more people pay attention to it and put resources into organisations like Grassroots Suicide Prevention that are doing work in informing people about how to identify risks, they've also got an app – Stay Alive – through which people can access help on their phone.

“Because of the experience of my brother and other people that I know, it's something I want to be active in trying to help.”

For anyone who wants to contribute, the justgiving fundraiser is still active here.

Frances is currently working as a peer community researcher exploring the experience of support for people in Portsmouth after a bereavement by suicide. She would like anyone locally who has been bereaved by suicide to complete a survey on the matter which you can access by clicking here.

Samaritans can be reached on 116 123.