Read on Twitter
Today is #WorldSuicidePreventionDay 
When I was at uni there was a lad from my old school in the year below me. Profoundly bright, but shy, quiet, difficult to get to know and to like, really. We weren't mates. I would see him around town occasionally. We'd nod in recognition 1/6
When I was at uni there was a lad from my old school in the year below me. Profoundly bright, but shy, quiet, difficult to get to know and to like, really. We weren't mates. I would see him around town occasionally. We'd nod in recognition 1/6
...I suppose of a shared school and hometown back story, but I wouldn't stop. Three quarters through his first year the pressure of uni got on top of him. Ironic because he was actually quite brilliant and would have sailed through his exams. But he didn't think so. He drank 2/6
...a lot of booze and got into the river. I saw the flag at half-mast on the roof of his College a day or two later. I joked to whoever I was with at the time that another fusty old Don must've snuffed it. But no - it was him. 19. I blamed the university which, at the time... 3/6
...put kids under a lot of pressure while not really having in place the mechanisms to help young people cope with that. I am sure that has changed now. But I also blamed myself for not trying to help him in any way when I believed, rightly or not, that I could have done. It 4/6
...had a deep effect on me. I think of him often and wonder what he might have become in later life. What's the moral of the story? I dunno. Except maybe that when you're feeling bleak and black things are rarely as bad as they seem and it's OK to ask for help and to talk to 5/6
...someone about how you feel. And don't be afraid to ask someone you sense might be struggling if there's anything you can do for them. There just might be and it just might make all the difference. 6/6 #WorldSuicidePreventionDay
