Britain’s Prince William had to attend to a man who had committed suicide on his first job as an air ambulance pilot.
The 33-year-old royal’s very first call-out after joining the East Anglian Air Ambulance was to a gentleman who had tragically taken his own life, and now he’s keen to encourage males to speak out about their problems rather than bottling them up to the point that they can’t go on anymore.
Speaking at a meeting in London for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a charity dedicated to tackling male suicide, on Thursday (12.05.16), he said: "In some of my charity work I have come across issues like this before, and coupled with my air ambulance work where my first job was a male suicide, I realised starkly how big a problem we have in this country. It was really close to me on that first day and one of the guys told me on average there are five attempted suicides a day. We need to do something about it. Get more men talking about their issues before it is too late and to stop feeling so strong and unable to seek help. Because it can destroy families, it can destroy lives."
CALM’s main objective is to develop resources that will encourage men to recognise the signs of depression.
And this isn’t the first time William – who has two children Prince George, two, and Princess Charlotte, 12 months, with his wife Duchess Catherine – has got stuck in to a mental health campaign as he and his brother Prince Harry have also joined forces to launch their project Heads Together, which aims to challenge the stigma over mental health.