We call our management committee members ‘Directors’ coz they direct our work.
LifeSIGNS wouldn’t be anything without our volunteer managers – they give their time for free and run our organisation.
Everyone at LifeSIGNS is a volunteer, with personal experience of self-injury. We might be recruiting.
It’s important to tackle the stigma around self-injury, I don’t want anyone to feel as alone and confused as I was. Self-injury is a coping mechanism – a way to deal with emotional and mental stresses. I’ve struggled with self-injury as a boy, as a teen, and again as a young adult.
I founded LifeSIGNS in 2002 to raise awareness about self-injury; at the time, I couldn’t find decent information on the web for UK audiences. I knew more could be done.
Over the years, our team has changed and developed, and so have our services. I’m proud to lead our charitable organisation and help our team of volunteers create impact across the UK, and the world. Now that LifeSIGNS is well into our second decade of operating, we mean to help create understanding and support people in their emotional health journey. It’s easier to talk about things these days, but prejudice remains, and people struggle to talk about self-injury and the emotional drivers behind it.
Wedge is my real name (these things happen, I assure you) and no one at LifeSIGNS uses their surnames.
Email me to discuss Self-Injury Awareness Day, our website, speaking, collaborating, and organisational matters.
I first discovered LifeSIGNS in 2003, and it came as a surprise to learn that there were other people who hurt themselves in order to cope with overwhelming emotion and stress.
Discovering that I wasn’t alone in self-injury was reassuring, but it also made me sad to know others were hurting themselves, perhaps in silence. I decided that I wanted to raise awareness about self-injury, and educate people. I wanted to change perceptions and help provide resources. And I wanted to reach out to people who were hurting, alone and in silence. So I joined LifeSIGNS in an official capacity and became a director in 2007.
My ‘real’ job working within the NHS has helped me empathise with the other side of self-injury, and the frustrations that can be involved in dealing with people who self-injure. I’ve always been interested in training people who deal with those who self-harm, and have delivered talks on the subject. As LifeSIGNS grows, I intend to work on our training packages and eventually host our first conference.
Email me to discuss sponsored walks, fund raising, events, training, and local / national project work.
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