A FUND established in memory of a teenager who took her own life has awarded thousands of pounds to organisations that support young Islanders’ mental health.
Today Kezia Mason would have celebrated her 16th birthday.
Her death in March last year left her family and friends devastated. Since then they have encouraged Islanders to honour her memory by raising awareness and funds to help young people with mental-health problems.
Kezia, a Year 10 student at Jersey College for Girls, was 14 when she died. Following her death her brother, Ben (17), launched an online appeal to support teenage mental-health charities. The response was overwhelming and within hours thousands of pounds had been raised.
After the total passed the £100,000 mark, the decision was taken to launch ‘Kezia’s Fund’, managed by the Jersey Community Foundation.
The first recipients of support provided by Kezia’s Fund, which awards grants to organisations that work to improve children and young people’s mental wellbeing, are being announced in today’s JEP.
Among the recipients are the charity Mind Jersey, for its Youthful Minds participation group (£20,000), and more than £5,000 has been given to the Jersey Youth Trust to fund ‘wellbeing days’.
Kezia’s legacy and Ben’s fundraising are also supporting one-to-one therapy sessions from Brighter Futures and funding two seasonal workers at ocean-therapy organisation Healing Waves.
And more groups are to receive donations later in the year.
Ben said that formally announcing the first round of funding on what would have been Kezia’s 16th birthday ‘makes it that bit more special for the family’.
In recognition of his campaign to raise funds and awareness about mental health, Ben won three trophies at last year’s Pride of Jersey awards ceremony.
The rest of the family has also worked to raise awareness of the issues around mental health and suicide prevention, as well as funds to support charities working in these areas.
Kezia’s father, Rob Mason, said: ‘As a father who has experienced the devastating loss of my much-loved daughter – who would have turned 16 today – to suicide, our family felt compelled to establish Kezia’s Fund, so that no other family in Jersey has to lose another child to suicide.
‘Through Kezia’s Fund, we aspire to bring meaning from her death and create a lasting positive impact on the lives and mental health of young individuals and their families in Jersey. By raising money and working with local projects that focus on youth mental health, we want to ensure that no child or young person or their family faces the darkness of mental-health challenges alone.’
A full list of the first beneficiaries of the Kezia’s Fund can be found in today’s JEP.
