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Soldiers of suicide to be remembered at Victoria candlelight ceremony

Honour Our Canadian Soliders host event to bring awareness to service-related PTSD
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The candlelight ceremony Feb. 21 in memoriam of those soldiers lost to suicide, will also serve as a fundraiser for the host group, Honour Our Canadian Soldiers, whose goal is to have a plaque installed in each region of the country where a solider has been lost. Photo courtesy of Honour Our Canadian Soldiers

Fighting for your country can be a difficult, life-changing experience, but coming home and continuing to fight for your life is the challenge not many people talk about.

Honour our Canadian Soldiers, a national support group dedicated to helping veterans and their families through the challenges of post traumatic stress disorder, is holding its second annual candlelight ceremony in memory of those lives lost to suicide.

The Feb. 21 ceremony, at the David Slater Auditorium on the second floor of the Trafalgar/Pro Patricia Legion, coincides with dozens of others across the country.

“We are honoured to once again have as a special guest Silver Cross mother Sheila Fynes, mother of Corp. Stuart Langridge … [who will] join us in this very important service and shed a light on mental health,” says co-host Jim MacMillan-Murphy.

As of 2017, 19 per cent of Canadian veterans who received a disability benefit did so for a service-related mental health diagnosis and 73 per cent of those were specifically for PTSD, according to Veteran Affairs Canada.

The Wednesday event is also a fundraiser for the support group to have plaques installed in every region of Canada where a solider has been lost to suicide.

“These families who are supporting this project want to raise awareness about PTSD,” MacMillan-Murphy says. “And at the same time we also want to show them that they are never alone.”

The family-friendly ceremony begins at 7 p.m. at the Trafalgar/Pro Patricia Legion, 411 Gorge Rd. E. Those who wish to attend are asked to RSVP to macmurph2@shaw.ca.

kristyn.anthony@vicnews.com