Plans for the Kent and Medway leg of the 2025 national Baton of Hope Tour are really shaping up.
The Baton of Hope campaign raises awareness of suicide prevention support. It also tackles suicide stigma by encouraging everyone to talk openly about mental health struggles.
Now organisers, supported by Medway Council and Kent County Council (KCC), have confirmed the Olympic-torch style baton will pass through Medway, Maidstone, Canterbury and Thanet on Monday, 22 September.
Overall, the tour will visit 20 locations around the country, starting in Blackpool on 1 September and ending in Wrexham on 4 October, giving communities a chance to celebrate absent loved ones and anyone who has overcome very difficult times.
Kent and Medway has had a great response to calls for baton-bearers but more are needed and the deadline for applications has been extended to Monday, 31 March. Just click the following link and complete the form at Become a Baton-bearer - Baton of Hope. You can be inspired by listening, via this same web page, to some of the people who carried the baton around the UK during its first tour in 2023.
To help promote hope, a host of events will take place around Monday, 22 September, including the unveiling of the Kent Speak Their Name Memorial Quilt at Margate’s Dreamland.
A variety show at Dreamland’s Hall-by-the-Sea will then bring the day to a close. Local entertainers, from singers and poets to comedians and magicians, wanting to be part of the Evening of Hope should get in touch. Email the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Team at suicideprevention@kent.gov.uk or local tour organiser Alice Scutchey on alice@batonofhopeuk.org to get involved.
A free 8-week charity boxing experience in support of Baton Of Hope UK is also being run by TKO in Maidstone. Find out more.
For further updates ahead of the tour follow #BatonOfHope and #PassItOn on social media and visit Kent and Medway’s own Baton of Hope Tour 2025 website.