SFX Fire Walk for Alfie's Squad

The staff and pupils at SFX are taking part in a Fire Walk to raise funds for Alfie's Squad. Alfie's Squad is a charity set up by one of our Year 10 pupils at SFX that helps children and young people who have been bereaved by suicide. They do this be offering a unique and ground-breaking peer support group in Liverpool, which supports children from all over Merseyside. The main aim of the charity is to stop these young people feeling so isolated, and to help them improve their self-worth by finding support with other children who are in the same situation.

Alfie set up this charity in 2018 aged just 9, who had lost his dad to suicide the previous year. At the time, there was no specific support anywhere in the UK, so Alfie decided to step up and sort it out himself.

Every year in the UK, 9,000 children are bereaved by parental suicide.

That equates to an average of 24 per day. Just 1 suicide effects a minimum of 135 people and 10% of them are children. People bereaved by suicide have an increased risk of mental health problems, feelings of

isolation, higher rates of sick leave and thoughts of taking their own life. This is just the effect it has on adults.

Imagine what it is like for children?

So far, Alfie has raised over £40,000, and has won multiple awards for his efforts.