Hi °C | Lo °C 
The mother of two teenage girls from Donegal who took their own lives has appealed to vulnerable young people to seek help, telling them: “Suicide is not the answer.”
Brave Lorraine Gallagher spoke out a day after laying her 15-year-old daughter Shannon to rest alongside her sister Erin (13). Both took their own lives, 45 days apart.
“I am just numb and I don't know what to think or say at this time,” she said.
“But I did see the looks on the faces of Shannon and Erin's friends and they are going through so much too.
“I want them to know that suicide is not the answer to whatever hurt and pain they are going through.
“There is another way and there are people there to listen. Whatever it is, we can sort it out,” she pleaded.
The 36-year-old said that she would try to carry on with her life for the sake of her four-year-old son Sean James.
“I know (Shannon and Erin) are looking down now and protecting us. I know they are willing me to be strong so he can have the best life possible now,” she said.
Shannon was laid to rest alongside Erin in Castlefin cemetery after her funeral at the Church of Mary Immaculate in Stranorlar, Co Donegal, on Saturday.
