Suicide prevention charity founder is ‘overwhelmed’ by ‘phenomenal’ support as organisations build and furnish lodge in support of her work

R;pple is the brainchild of Alice Hendy, a Stubbington woman who set up the charity after her younger brother Josh died by suicide at the age of 21 in 2020.

Discretely intercepting harmful searches and providing signposting to 24/7, free mental health support, R;pple is a browser plug-in that prompts an automatic pop-up when users search for information on self-harm or taking their own life.

A donation from The Eight Foundation, a Fareham-based charitable trust, has paid for a lodge in Alice’s garden - providing her with a space to work on R;pple.

Desks and monitors for the office were also donated by the Office for National Statistics.

Alice said: ‘The Eight Foundation have been such a support to my charity.

‘They came forward with an idea to build a small working space for me to carry out my charitable work from, and the idea grew from there.

‘I now have a dedicated space to work on R;pple and carry out the development work of my technology, which wouldn’t be possible without the financial backing of The Eight Foundation.

‘The Office for National Statistics has also been a huge support.

‘I used to work for ONS many years ago, and I approached them about the possibility of donating some office furniture such as desks and monitors for me and my charity volunteers to work from.

‘They were quick to support and have fully kitted out my new workspace, free of charge.’

Alice is grateful to each of the organisations for their backing.

She added: ‘The kindness, generosity, and goodwill of The Eight Foundation and ONS has been phenomenal.

‘I’m working day and night to support people who might be struggling with their mental health, so to receive such tremendous support from local organisations means a huge amount to me and is keeping me going as I navigate my grief of losing my brother, Josh.

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‘I felt very overwhelmed when I was approached about the opportunity of building a space for my charitable work, it was such a generous offer that I didn’t know whether to believe it was going to happen.

‘When the builders and the electrician arrived, the dream became a reality, and I am so thankful to the team for their hard work in the construction of the lodge.’

Now, R;pple is appealing for donations from the community to raise enough funds to make sure that the charity’s suicide prevention technology is compatible on mobile and tablet devices.

Alice added: ‘If anyone can support, please donate at justgiving.com/fundraising/ripple-suicide-prevention.’

If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact Portsmouth and East Hampshire Samaritans on 0330 094 5717.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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