Pamela Dennis doesn’t know why her teenage daughter took her own life in 2017. It’s her mission to make sure no other mother goes through the same pain.

Each year, the Khyla N. Dennis Memorial Foundation takes to the track at the Liberty County Recreation Department for a one-mile walk “We honor those we have lost, whether it’s to suicide or any other type of death,” she said. “We just want the community to know that they are not alone. We do believe prevention saves lives.”

Khyla Dennis took her own life at 13, and her mother said they didn’t notice any signs of depression.

“This is a small community and we want people to know this is real,” Pamela Dennis said. “We have people who are taking their lives and we want to do everything we can to preserve lives.” Through her research and her time as an advocate for suicide prevention, Pamela Dennis said she has learned that children as young as 5 take their own lives.

“It’s important we have these conversations and spread the word,” she said.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about one person dies from suicide in the U.S. every 11 minutes. Suicide s the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10-14 in the U.S., and is the second-leading cause of death for people ages 15–24. It is the 11th leading cause of death overall. Annually, twenty percent of high school students in the nation have serious thoughts of suicide.

Those who may be in a mental health crisis can call 988, which is a nationwide number. It connects callers to behavioral crisis and suicide prevention specialists around the clock.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and September 9–15 was Suicide Prevention Week.