THE family and friends of a Pontypool father-of-two, who took his own life last year, have raised almost £10,000 for a suicide prevention charity.

Mathewfest, held in memory of Mathew David Harvey, was a three-day fundraising festival for Samaritans Cymru held in Cwmbran and Pontypool.

The event involved a fun-run, sponsored walk, cycle and music concert, with over 200 people involved and was held to celebrate Mr Harvey’s life and increase awareness of the importance of opening up and reaching out for help.

Craig Jenkins, one of Mr Harvey’s closest friends, said: “I truly believe Mathew would have been so proud of everyone.

“From the start, we wanted to raise awareness of depression and male suicide and I always said that even if we make one person pick up the phone and call Samaritans, then we have made a difference.

“I know a lot of support information was provided to our community during this event and I hope that we’ve succeeded in spreading awareness of asking for help.

“It’s brilliant that it’s also encouraged people to come forward and volunteer themselves.”

The festival was a huge success and has collected £9,365 in donations alone, all of which will be given to Samaritans South Wales Valleys project, a Samaritans in Wales project which aims to reduce suicide across the South Wales Valleys.

The organisers have already confirmed their intentions to run the event again in 2018.

Susan Francis, a project officer for Samaritans in the South Wales Valleys, said: “We are over the moon with the success of Mathewfest.

“We were proud to be involved with this event from the start, it was a really positive way of engaging with local communities and raising awareness of the importance of talking and reaching out for help.

“Our project aims to increase access to our emotional support service and encourage help-seeking behaviour in the Valleys area and thanks to the family and friends of Mathew, we have been able to increase vital awareness of how to access help.

“Mathew’s friends and family have worked tirelessly on this event and thanks to them, their donation will directly contribute to the running of our project.

“We’ve also received interest from new volunteers who want to help those who may be struggling to cope in their own communities.

“This is a really positive development – it’s so important that we spread the message that asking for help shows strength, not weakness.”

To donate to Mathewfest, go to justgiving.com/teams/MathewFest or for charity details, go to samaritans.org.