CALM charity launches campaign to highlight impact of youth suicide

Representatives from Maidenhead United attended the unveiling of an installation highlighting the impact of youth suicide at Westfield Shopping Centre in White City last week.

Coinciding with World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) launched its latest campaign – Missed Birthdays.

The charity has been the Magpies’ front-of-shirt sponsor for the past two seasons - thanks to the generous backing of nine businesses in the Maidenhead area.

CALM is a suicide prevention charity on a mission to help people end their misery, not their lives, by working to support all those with suicidal thoughts.

In the past decade 6,929 young people in the UK have taken their own lives and CALM is highlighting this tragic fact through the installation at Westfield – bringing it into the national conversation.

Sian Lancaster, commercial partnership manager at Maidenhead United FC attended the unveiling of the installation at the shopping centre last week.

The charity is keen to stress that everyone can play a role in improving the wellbeing of young people in their lives, whether as a parent, uncle, teacher, coach or friend.

The installation, which was in place across three days at the shopping centre last week, used 6,929 birthday balloons – usually a symbol of hope for the future – to mark all those birthdays that were never celebrated.

Simon Gunning, CALM’s CEO, who grew up in Holyport, said: “Every balloon represented a real young person who died.

“The ages on the birthday balloons represent the birthday that young person didn’t reach, which is extremely poignant.

“We worked with incredible families – 53 [bereaved] families who have lost a young person to suicide to create case studies.”

The charity has launched a C.A.R.E. kit, which is an evolving, free online resource which gives adults the practical tools to support young people.

C.A.R.E. stands for Check in, Ask them how they are, Remain close and Expert help and is aimed at supporting young people aged 16 to 24.

“[What] we’ve noticed over the last 18 months, two years, in the numbers that come out of the Office for National Statistics is that the greatest growth in death by suicide and suicidality that’s ever been seen in history, is amongst young people.

“We wanted to be able to create a set of tools for what we call trusted adults.

“That might be a parent, it might be a family member or a family friend or a colleague.”

Mr Gunning added: “One of the key things is working with the families bereaved to understand their loss is [the] most tragic, tragic thing.

“I cannot imagine having lost a child to suicide.

He added: “It’s that lost potential. It’s the joy that they didn’t get to experience and also the contribution to all of the rest of us, the rest of society that they didn’t ever make.”

The charity launched the campaign with a range of partners, including television network ITV.

CALM has previously worked on numerous campaigns surrounding suicide prevention and, including two high-profile campaigns with ITV, namely Project 84 and The Last Photo.

Mr Gunning added there will be fresh takes on the Missed Birthdays campaign, with ITV and other partners involved, before the end of the year and next year.

For more information about the campaign and the C.A.R.E. kit, visit: https://care.thecalmzone.net/prevention