606 shoes suicide prevention video goes viral: 223,000 and counting

A facebook video of 606 pairs of shoes for each New Zealander lost to suicide in the last year has gone viral.

In four days, almost a quarter of a million people have watched the video of Brent Nicolls walking through the shoes contemplating New Zealand's suicide rate.

New Zealand has the highest teen suicide rate in the developed world.

606 Kiwis died by suicide between July 2016 and June 2017, the highest since records began in 2008.

Nicolls filmed the video on Tuesday in Greymouth, a small town on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island.

It has 3,864 shares.

Reposts have 100,000 more views and thousands more shares.

Brent Nicoll is the chairman of Shining Light on the Dark, a suicide awareness group in Hokitika.

In the video he says: “If you ever want to understand the impact of suicide on this country you’ve got to understand that every one of these pairs of shoes represents someone who is no longer with us."

“Imagine someone standing in every one of these shoes, and this is only the official number," he says. “So if you don’t think we actually need to stop and talk about suicide, perhaps this might actually make a difference."

Over the last two weeks, two sets of 606 shoes have been traveling from the top and bottom of New Zealand's two main islands.

The shoes will arrive at their final stop at Parliament in Wellington at 11 am this Sunday 10 September, World Suicide Prevention Day.

The New Zealand event is the first of a series of events across the world.

Mr Nicoll will attend and sing a self-penned song about hope.

Watch the original video at: https://www.facebook.com/brent.nicoll/posts/10210361360016557

The video is under a minute and a half long.

ENDS

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