3 Dads Walking at Westminster

When we did our first walk in 2021 we met many other suicide-bereaved parents who shared their stories of the children they had lost; the run-in to those suicides were all different but virtually everyone told us the same thing about the impact of their child’s death.

They said:

-       They hadn’t seen it coming.

-       They found out about PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide AFTER their child’s suicide.

-       It was then they discovered that suicide is the biggest killer of under 35s in the UK.

-       They all asked, ‘Why didn’t anyone tell us?’

This question resonated with us – ‘Why didn’t anyone tell us?’

We were motivated to walk again, this time to ask that question of government. We realised that the school curriculum had a gaping hole – it has been changed to include mental health issues, wellbeing and selfcare...but suicide prevention is conspicuous by its absence. Surely if the biggest risk in our young people’s lives are themselves, we have a duty to talk to them about the issue.

Our second walk focussed on getting suicide prevention added to the school curriculum as a compulsory topic. We walked 600 miles between the 4 parliament buildings of the UK and launched a petition on the government website calling for this change.

By the time we finished the walk our petition had gained over 100,000 signatures which meant it had to be considered for debate in parliament. This debate was held on March 13th and we were there.

Numerous MPs spoke at the debate, many sharing their personal experience of suicide. Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East & Saddleworth, gave a particularly emotional and powerful speech when she talked about the loss of her nephew, Jack. Suicide does not discriminate – it happens across the country, across all parts of society and all communities.

All MPs who spoke backed our call for suicide prevention to be added to the school curriculum as a compulsory subject. They all understood that we must address the greatest risk in our young people’s lives in an age-appropriate manner; if we don’t do this in a safe and controlled way our young people will find out about suicide for themselves via their handheld devices, not a sensible option.

Nick Gibb MP, Minister for Education, responded on behalf of the government. He confirmed that the review of the RSHE curriculum (Relationships, Sex & Health Education) has been called forward from September to begin immediately, he also said that suicide prevention would be a priority in that review. He stopped short of committing to ensure that suicide prevention would be added to the curriculum....

Here’s a link to the debate:

We will contribute to this review as we have been invited to meet Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, and also the Prime Minister. We tell them what we have learnt, share the common stories we have heard and ask they why we are avoiding talking about the biggest killer of our young people. We won’t stop pushing. We are very hopeful that the lifesaving change we have called for will come into effect. You can help us in this cause by writing to your MP to ask them to support our campaign when they have the opportunity to contribute.

At the heart of all this lies the question we’ve heard from suicide-bereaved parents – if suicide is the biggest killer of young people in the country, why didn’t anyone tell us?

As a society, we need to grow-up and talk to our young people about the biggest risk in their lives – that is themselves.