Her love of trail running sprang from grief. Now, this N.L. woman is holding a race to help others

Tanya Joy's passion is long distance trail running, and now she wants to share that with others as well as raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Joy turned to running followingher brother's death by suicide in 2019, whenshe found herself in a dark place.

"I was struggling with how to deal with it. Every day I would just continue to go on the trails to run and I found that it was the healing place," she said.

"It's where I needed to find myself."

Running also spawned a new idea. Joycreated a 50-kilometre trailrace from Pasadena to Steady Brook to create awareness aroundsuicide prevention and support families left behind by suicide.

She had moved to the west coast of Newfoundlandwhen the COVID-19pandemic hit to train for a 100-kilometre ultramarathon.

"I trained for five months out there, and that's when I fell completely in love with the trails and that's where my healing began," she said.

Where to get help:

CanadaSuicidePrevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (phone) | 45645 (Text, 4 p.m. to midnight ET only) |crisisservicescanada.ca

In Quebec (French):Association qubcoise de prvention du suicide: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553)

Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (phone), live chat counselling atwww.kidshelpphone.ca

Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention:Find a 24-hour crisis centre

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