CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- November 17 is International Suicide Survivor Loss Day.

On this day family and friends of people who have died by suicide get together to share stories, discuss ways to cope with the loss and show support for one another.

Amanda McGough is a board member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s North Carolina Chapter. She lost a friend to suicide during graduate school and decided to specialize in a type of suicide prevention psychology. Each year she holds a Suicide Survivor Loss Day group in Charlotte.

“Being able to come together with loss survivors that get what they’re going through, they don’t have to worry about the stigma of bringing up that this was a suicide loss can be very powerful for people,” she said.

One of those people is Alice McGinley. She lost her son, Danny, to suicide in 2001 when he was just 16 years old. She took some time to grieve, but then decided the best way to honor her son's memory was to help other people. She started the group H.U.G.S: Healing and Understanding Grief form Suicide, a peer support group for people affected by suicide.

“Its not that it doesn’t hurt the same as it did the first day its just that we build muscle around it and we can carry it a lot easier,” McGinley said.

If you or a loved one are having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK.