Fancy getting your hands on a signed running singlet from Usain Bolt?

A signed running singlet from Usain Bolt is one of the fantastic items up for offer at an upcoming charity auction in aid of Pieta House.

We can’t promise that you’ll suddenly transform into the fastest man on the planet if you get your hands on it, but a memento from one of the most famous and popular figures in the world of athletics is certainly something to cherish.

As well as that, other items such as an Irish football jersey signed by the entire Euro 2012 squad and a Leinster rugby jersey will be up for auction to help raise funds for Pieta House and to help raise awareness of suicide in Ireland, something that accounts for hundreds of lives in this country every year.

The date for the auction has yet to be finalised, but more details will become clear following the annual Tea Party in aid of Pieta House that will be held in Lusk in north County Dublin this weekend. There is normally a raffle on the day, but such was the quality of items on offer this year that it was decided to auction them off separately instead.

The event is being organised by Brian McEvoy, who has been intimately involved with the Tea Party for the last few years. McEvoy lost his brother, Adrian, to suicide in 2007 and Pieta House provided great support in helping Brian and his family overcome their loss.

As Pieta House is a free service and receives little in the way of funding, Brian helped set up the Tea Party to help raise awareness for them. They have received great feedback from people who have attended the Tea Party and then gone on to use the facilities of Pieta House and to date have helped raise €20,000.

The upcoming auction and Tea Party should help raise a lot more money for the cause and speaking to JOE this week, Brian McEvoy, organiser of the Tea Party, told us: “We thought that items such as the Usain Bolt singlet might be a bit to give away in a raffle and instead decided that we should auction them off and see what sort of interest we could get.

“We run the tea party in aid of Pieta House and have been doing so for a number of years so if we can raise as much as possible for them it would be great.”

Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House, will be in Lusk this weekend and she’ll be bringing with her a replica version of the torch that she proudly carried through the streets of Dublin earlier this week.

There will also be bouncing castles, face painting and a magic show for the kids and tea/coffee and an abundance of homemade cakes, all baked by local people, for anyone who wants to attend.

It’s all for a great cause, to raise awareness of suicide in Ireland, and McEvoy told us that although awareness of the issue has improved in recent years, it is something that needs to be constantly highlighted to get the message across.

“I think suicide awareness has become better over the last couple of years, there has been more in the media about it and it’s certainly been highlighted more since the recession hit,” he said.

“It needs to be highlighted and there’s far more that could be done to raise awareness and that’s why we started the tea party to try and help out.

“When you look at the figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) you can see that the amount of deaths from suicide every year outweighs deaths from car accidents. It’s a major issue in Ireland and it needs to be at the forefront of the media in this country.”

For more information on the Tea Party in Aid of Pieta House, check out their Facebook page.