Cornwall’s Eden Project and Heligan host UK suicide memorial tour

Under the glass domes of the Eden Project and beside the restored borders of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, visitors this summer found themselves stopping in front of a wall of fabric squares. Each one carried a name, sometimes a photograph, sometimes just a handful of words stitched by hand. Behind every square was a life lost to suicide, and a family who wanted that life remembered rather than reduced to a statistic.

A tour that has now reached its final stop

The Speak Their Name Memorial Quilt Tour 2026 has spent the summer travelling thousands of miles around the UK, carrying the quilts from Birmingham to Glasgow, Southport and Cornwall, before moving on to Brighton and finally London. The tour concluded on 10 September at the Consortium for Prevention of Suicide Conference at Lloyd’s of London, marking World Suicide Prevention Day, and it lands during National Suicide Prevention Month, which runs throughout September.

Speak Their Name is a UK charity founded by people with lived experience of suicide bereavement. Its purpose is to help people who have lost someone to suicide remember and celebrate their lives, find others who understand what they are going through, and access the right support. The charity also works to improve the experience of families attending inquests, build communities based on lived experience, and use the voices of those bereaved by suicide to help drive suicide prevention.

Where the tour went

The 2026 tour began at The Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham, before travelling to Glasgow Central Station, Southport Flower Show, Heligan and the Eden Project in Cornwall, and the SHQA Quilt Show at Brighton Racecourse. Along the way the quilts were seen by people going about ordinary days out, at flower shows and exhibitions, passing through a busy railway station, or simply finding themselves standing in front of something they had not expected to encounter.

That, perhaps, is the point of taking the quilts to places like a railway station or a garden rather than only to dedicated events. People stopped and looked. They read the names, saw the photographs and the personal messages, talked to each other, and asked questions. For some, a square will have represented someone they knew. For others, it may have been the first time they had really stopped to consider what suicide loss means for the people left behind.

More than 800 names, square by square

The quilts now represent the lives of more than 800 people lost to suicide, a number that is difficult to take in until it is broken down into individual squares, each stitched by someone who loved that person. Taking those names into places where people might not otherwise encounter a conversation about suicide and bereavement was, the charity says, a deliberate choice.

Ashley Redsell, Director of Speak Their Name, said the scale of the response had gone beyond what the charity expected when the tour was first planned.

“When we started planning this tour, we knew the quilts were powerful. What we couldn’t know was just how many people would stop, look and take the time to understand what they were seeing,” Ashley said.

“I want to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to every organisation, venue, event organiser, volunteer, supporter and individual who has helped us make this tour possible. Thank you for accommodating the quilts, for making space for these stories and, most importantly, for helping us ensure that these names continue to be spoken.”

Ashley added that the timing, landing during National Suicide Prevention Month, was a reminder that suicide prevention and mental health support are closely connected.

“As the tour comes to an end during National Suicide Prevention Month, it feels particularly important to remember that this isn’t simply an exhibition. It is a call to remember, to talk, to listen and to recognise that suicide prevention and suicide bereavement are deeply connected.”

What happens next

The end of the tour is not the end of the work. Speak Their Name says it will continue to support people bereaved by suicide, connect people through lived experience, create opportunities to remember loved ones, and amplify the voices of those affected by suicide. Its Memorial Quilt groups across the UK continue to meet, bringing bereaved people together to stitch new squares, share their experiences and build communities of people who understand.

With the final quilts now packed away in London, hundreds of names have travelled the length of the country this summer, and thousands of people will have had the chance to stop, and to see them.