Mason's Mental Health Legacy

My name is Jess and I lost my 14 year old son to suicide on the 27th September 2021.

Mason was a beautiful, kind, funny and an inquisitive soul and his death has left us devastated. Life will never be the same without him.

Mason's interests were countless; fishing, woodwork, falconry, water sports, Anime, gaming and much more. He also had brilliant friends and teachers, plus a network of family, neighbours and a range of people in the community around him. Mason volunteered, he worked, he was told he was loved and valued. But on a normal Monday afternoon Mason walked around 20 minutes away from his home and sent messages to me and a friend to say goodbye. Mason said he loved me with all his heart. But Mason still took his own life.

I am safeguarding trained and have worked with young people with mental health problems for years. I still didn't see that my baby boy had reached a level whereby he felt that this was his only option.

Grief gives you 20:20 vision, clarity on every conversation, every traumatic experience and every missed opportunity.

I am talking to Mason's friends, hearing from professionals and trying to identify the factors that caused Mason’s death, in some hope to prevent others also leaving us too soon. I have already learned so much through the letters Mason left me, I’ve listened to the playlists he constantly had streaming through his ears and am starting to build up a deeper understanding of Mason’s world.

Mason’s family and friends have an inquest to get through and need time to process and understand all the information that is now coming to our attention. We plan to work together to identify projects and charities that could have helped someone like Mason, and that could help others. Talking to other teenagers and hearing what they think would help, will drive the direction of the funding.

Suicide is the leading killer of 10 – 34-year-olds and ¾ of those who take their lives are male. Despite this, funding for mental health research is significantly lower than for physical conditions. Even charity funding is disproportionately higher for physical conditions, leaving charities and organisations under supported.

One of Mason’s friends has already set up a Time to Talk offer at his boy’s school and charity runs and fundraisers are being planned to bring together as much funding as possible. We are hoping more people will come together and get involved.

The solutions are complex and no one size will fit all but we are going to try. Some of the solutions the funding will go towards are:

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I can't bring Mason back but I hope to be able to find some way of preventing other young people from feeling the way Mason did.