One year ago today, Kiara Paiva, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who struggled with depression, took her own life despite help from psychological counselling and medication.

This month, family and friends of Kiara plan their first walk in her memory, closing with an information session, to help others reckon with loss as well as offering a chance to talk about mental health.

Ruth Moran, a close friend of Kiara’s parents Kylie and Billie, said: “The family were doing everything they were supposed to do for her.”

Ms Moran added: “It was just too much for her.”

Ms Moran is a co-founder of Kiara’s Movement, organisers of the suicide awareness walk planned for Saturday afternoon at Cooper’s Island Nature Reserve in St George’s, with January 18 set as a rain date.

She said: “We’ve been dealing with our grief, as well as trying to figure out the best way to continue the conversation, not just in our personal circle but extended out.”

The group have held two fundraising bake sales, in addition to Ms Moran and Kiara’s mother speaking in November when the island marked International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day.

Others whose lives had been marked by suicide approached them after they spoke at the gathering on November 23, Ms Moran said. “The response from the community has been very positive. We’re just starting to take baby steps as a group.”

The family have talked with Kiara’s friends, some of whom have reached out to her older sister, Tianna, and the group intends to get charity status to be able to speak in schools.

Ms Moran said the Cooper’s Island walk, set from 2pm to 4pm, would be “a safe space” for anyone affected by depression or anxiety. She added: “It’s a healing opportunity for people to be around others who understand their grief. Grief is horrible in itself. When you add the loss by suicide, there tends to be a bit more unanswered questions and no real closure.

“This is an opportunity for the community to come together and spend some time in a beautiful setting, remembering loved ones and being around like-minded people who can possibly help support their healing.”

She thanked Chris Gibbons, who founded the group Losing Someone by Suicide in 2016 after the death of his daughter, Jessica, that year.

Ms Moran called him “an amazing resource for our family and an amazing human being; he has been very open with sharing his story and supporting us and others in sharing ours”.

She said the group hoped to see the last stigma over mental illness “gone, and have seeing a therapist be as common as going to your dentist”.

“It’s about actually being able to have these conversations, and give ourselves the permission to not be okay.”

The walk will be “a judgment free zone” for people who want to walk, or just to sit and talk at the park tables. Ms Moran added: “We’re building a community here in Bermuda. We are small but we can be a beacon of hope if we take our mental and physical health seriously.”

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