Becky: Pieta House saved me

By Ellen O'Regan

Becky McFall never thought she would live to see her 23rd birthday.

Thanks to the support of Pieta House, she overcame her struggles with mental health, and to celebrate she is skydiving to raise money for the charity, “to give other people that same chance”.

Becky is currently living a life of fun and adventure, having moved from Cork to work as a teacher in sunny Dubai. A warm presence and infectious smile would make you believe Becky has always been perfectly happy. But looking back on her teens, Becky tells a different story.

“Amongst the 58,000 lives that Pieta House have changed since its doors opened in 2006, one of those lives was mine,” she told the Cork Independent.

Becky struggled with her mental health in school, saying: “Depression doesn’t always look how you think it does. For me it was nothing ever being good enough, always thinking ‘I thought this would be better, I thought this would be better’, and nothing ever lived up to my standards. It made me very numb,” she said.

By fourth year, she was self-harming, and by sixth year, cognitive behavioural therapy for her anxiety and depression were not helping.

“Clinics are very medical – doctor, waiting rooms, water dispensers,” said Becky.

When she reached out to Pieta House, they fulfilled a need that Becky couldn’t answer with clinical therapy.

“They just saved me,” she said. “On the first day walking in to Pieta House with my mom I was so nervous, and then we just heard ‘cuppa girls?’. They were just amazing. It’s so warm and homely, you walk in and its happy there.”

Pieta House is a non-profit organisation that provides free one-to-one counselling to people suffering from suicidal ideation, engaging in self-harm or to those bereaved by suicide.

Becky not only hopes to raise money for Pieta House with her skydive, but also wants to encourage people not to ignore their feelings, and be brave enough to take the first steps to recovery.

“We all know by now that it’s okay not to be okay, and everyone says it to other people. But it can be much harder to treat yourself with that same kindness,” said Becky.

Becky’s favourite hopeful mantra is that some of our best memories haven’t happened yet. A few years on from her darkest days, she is living proof of that. “When I was 17, I didn’t see a future and didn’t even have the emotion to care, and I remember hearing people say that life will get better and just thinking, ‘shut up’.

“But it will get better. My life has become something so incredible. I’m going to jump out over The Palm in Dubai with my best friends. Life doesn’t get better than that!”

You can visit gofundme.com and search for 'Skydive for Pieta House' to support Becky’s skydive.

“This is the best charity in the world. There’s not enough help out there. There’s never going to be enough help.

“But if you donate a tenner, a fiver, even a euro, you’ve helped Pieta House to save someone’s life, and that’s amazing,” she concluded.