A bereaved mum will be leading a memorial walk in Peak District in memory of her daughter who died 10 years ago.
Faye Smith, from Ranmoor, has organised the event on Sunday in memory of her daughter, Gabi, who died when she was 12.
Gabi died on exactly the same day as her father when he took his own life in 2011.
Gabi’s father, also Ms Smith’s ex-husband, suffered problems with alcohol and they parented separately for seven years until he died at the age of 48.
After her marriage broke down, Ms Smith started walking and leading a women-only walking group.
The 56-year-old said: “Walking is a great way to keep moving and then you walk towards your solution, towards the better future, and towards the new start,
“It helped me get through my marriage breakdown. It helped me after my husband tragically took his own life, and it helped me after my daughter died two years later on the same day.”
A year after her father’s death, Gabi developed dissociative seizures, also known as non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD) when the body can’t handle particular thoughts, memories, emotions, or sensation. It can also be related to stress or a previous experience of trauma, according to the NHS.
On the day she died, Gabi was found unresponsive in the bathtub and drowned on March 16, 2013, which may have been a result of a seizure caused by the trauma of losing her father.
The family was also hit with a third traumatic event when Ms Smith’s father died of a stroke a few years ago. At the time Ms Smith was also going through a broken engagement after being with her new partner for two and a half years.
She said: “Those women (in the woman-only walking group) have all started moving on in their lives, getting re-partnered and with my own engagement coming to an end suddenly, I joined the Ramblers.
“I wanted to be in an organised group while I recovered and the Ramblers group was healing and healthy.”
The mum of two is walking as a fundraiser for the Ramblers’ England Coast Path Appeal to create the world’s longest continuous coastal trail(3000 miles) in her daughter’s name.
Ramblers Group, also known as the Ramblers Association, is Britain’s leading walking charity that has campaigned to keep the British Countryside open to all since 1935.
Liz Sharp, 56, Nether Edge, the chair of the Sheffield Ramblers’ Group, who is also a Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Sheffield.
Professor Sharp said: “Well done to Faye for turning something so challenging into something positive and in a sense making grief easier to talk about.”
The memorial walk route from Ashford in the Water to Bakewell is also the last walk Gabi ever did with her mum and brother, Zach, which was six days before she died.
Ms Smith: “This might be the last time I organise a memorial walk like this for Gabi.
“But 10 years on, I just wanted to remember her once again.”
A year ago, Ms Smith founded Hope Walking, an organisation that provides walking journeys for women.
When asked about the inspiration for naming it Hope Walking, Ms Smith said: “My faith that one day I will be reunited with my daughter through eternity, my hope is what kept me going through my bereavements.”