PICTURE GALLERY: Bressie’s ‘The Rising’ comes to Leitrim

The Blizzards frontman and mental health advocate Bressie is currently making his way down the Shannon by kayak and Carrick-on-Shannon was one of the stops for the Mullingar man and his team this weekend where the Leitrim Observer took the opportunity to catch up with the lads after they docked in the town.
The boys have been training tirelessly for the event which is called the 'The Rising' and will see them attempt to kayak the full length of the River Shannon, over 300km, with all funds raised going to 'A Lust for Life', an award winning mental health charity with a focus on educating young people to look after their mental health.
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Bressie said: “Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, says that every child has a right to the highest attainable level of mental and physical health; Ireland ratified that in 1992 and have continuously breached it when it comes to the mental health of children.
“So, we're not stepping up to help children the way they need to be helped when it comes to their mental health and for me, the best way to do that is developing models of care for early prevention teaching kids tools to understand the little piece of meat between their ears early. It won't solve everything but it will make a hell of a lot of a bigger difference than what we are seeing at the moment.
“We have a crisis model at the moment that doesn't work, doesn't function and we are failing countless families because of it.
“It's not something the Government have stepped up on and I don't know which Government will step up on this but we are just doing what we can do which is develop these programmes which is a A Lust for Life.”
A large crowd of locals gathered at Drumhierny Woodland Hideaway Estate to hear Bressie and other members of the A Lust for Life team speak about the work carried out by the mental health charity.