Since attempting to take his own life in September 2000 by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Kevin Hines has travelled the world to stop others from doing the same.
Of the thousands of people who have died after jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, Kevin Hines is part of the 1% who have survived.
Kevin’s darkest hour came in September 2000, and since he survived his fall from one of the world’s most iconic landmarks he has travelled the world to tell his story and hopefully stop a trend that has seen more than 2,000 people die by suicide at the bridge.
Next Monday, Kevin will take part in an event for Pieta House at the Mansion House, Hope Helps Heal: Kevin Hines in Conversation, at which he will speak to Charlie Bird. while there will also be contributions from Pieta House CEO Brian Higgins, Aslan singer Christy Dignam, Leslie Dowdall (In Tua Nua) and Keith Geraghty (Friends of Emmet).
The event takes place next Monday, 6 March, at the Mansion House in Dublin.
Ahead of next week’s event, Kevin explained why he has become a voice for those at their lowest ebb.
“When someone shares a message of hope, healing, recovery, and true triumph over adversity it has a transformative power in guiding people of all walks of life to be inspired to change their lives,” he told JOE.
Kevin feels that being taught to ‘exemplify masculinity’ from a young age is what is destroying the lives of so many young men.
“Human beings, men in particular, have been told to “man up,” “shut up,” “stop crying”; they’ve been asked and taught as they grow that a man doesn’t feel, cry, hurt, or feel shame publicly in any way. We have trained our young men to exemplify masculinity, and lack in any of our more sensitive traits.
“Yet we’ve forgotten that which is very important: we are all made of of both X and Y chromosomes, male and female traits. this does not make us weak, it makes us human, and it is purely biological.”
YouTube credit: Buzzfeed
Finally, he explains how he lives his life now and how thankful he is that his life did not come to an end almost 17 years ago.
“Today and every day I engage in a regular practice of what I call ‘active gratitude,” he says.
“I do not take for granted any one person I meet, or come into contact with, one place I get to go, one family member I have, or one thing I ‘get’ to do.
“None of us is promised tomorrow, I almost lost it all in the year 2000, by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Yet I survived. It truly was a miracle in so many ways that I remain here on this earth. I always remind myself ‘I get the honour’ to be here.
“We who are alive all do. Since I am not promised tomorrow, I fight my disease daily, hourly, or even by the minute. I fight not just to survive, but to truly live.
“This is not my story, this is our story, all of us have experienced trauma, or pain in our lives, all of us have triumphed over struggle and adversity. My story is vast, complicated, scary, sad, happy, and beautiful. Our story is the same. My story will shed a light down a path you need to go, towards hope.”
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