Suicide leads to endless suffering
The grim statistics only tell a fraction of the story of the impact that suicide has on families and communities.
What’s not recorded is the suffering and intense grief that relatives and friends have to deal with following the loss of a loved-one.
Callum Dunne, 16, was discovered dead in Wishaw in April 2018.
The teenager showed no sign that anything was troubling him beforehand, according to his older sibling.
His sister Shannon Brown, 24, from Coltness, said: “Callum messaged me on the Friday to see if I needed anything fom the shops.
“I said no and said to enjoy the weekend then I got a call the next day telling me what had happened.
“It came as a total shock to me. He had seemed his happy wee self.
“We actually had a conversation about suicide just a few weeks before because a boy Callum had grown up with had committed suicide. “He had said ‘I could never do that’.” Shannon thinks the influence of social media is playing a significant part in the number of young people taking their own lives.
“You can make a profile and say whatever you want to anybody,” she continued. “They can be anonymous on these and make comments about you.
“I’ve went on to some of these pages just to see what’s being said and half of the stuff is just horrendous.
“People just need to be nicer to each other. You never know what’s going on in someone’s mind so people should be more mindful.
“I t hink we need more counsellors in school to help with these kind of things.” Callum was also brother to younger sister Kaylee, 11, and uncle to Shannon’s two-year-old daughter Harper.
“We have pictures all over the house and Harper points to them and says ‘that’s my Uncle Callum’.
“I tell her he’s a wee angel up in the sky.
“I will always keep his memory alive. I feel that’s my place being his big sister.
“Kaylee is quiet and in a shell. She always tells me she is fine, but I say I’m fine too because you don’t want to trouble anyone.
“You can see the expression on people’s face when you tell them that Callum committed suicide.
“I just want more people to be aware of what’s going on.”
Graham Fraser, 27, who was also from Wishaw, took his own life in June this year. His dad William Blackwood has set up a charity foundation in his name.
“The best thing people can do is talk, I talk to everyone now,” William admitted.
“If someone is withdrawn and doesn’t want to talk then you know there’s an issue there but Graham was never like that.
“There is never anything that can’t really be fixed. We get caught up with work and things, and there’s a lot of pressure with social media.
“You have to accept yourself and love yourself, but some people don’t feel like that. They think the world is against them and everything they do they question, or feel they have to justify.
“There were 38 suicides in North Lanarkshire last year and there have already been 39 so far this year. The statistics for Scotland are scary.”