When Matthew was 10 his brother took his own life. After a decade of campaigning on suicide, the government finally listened to him

'Suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem,' he says

Matthew Smith with brother Daniel, who took his life aged 19 (If U Share Care)

With Theresa May’s announcement of a minister for suicide prevention last week, Britain broke ground as the first country to have such a position – but the role was not dreamt up in the corridors of Westminster.

It was 24-year-old Matthew Smith who came up with the idea and – after a decade of campaigning and a petition signed by almost 400,000 Britons – saw it become part of Her Majesty’s government.

That journey started in the home of Matthew’s family in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, in March 2005. Then 10 years old, he can still remember the cries of his mother Shirley when she found his 19-year-old brother Daniel had killed himself in his bedroom.

“I still have that image of what happened,” Matthew says.

There had been no signs that administrative worker Daniel – an outgoing, funny teenager who was a keen Newcastle United fan – was struggling that day when Matthew and his parents, as well as five-year-old brother Ben, left to go shopping nearby.

Thirteen years on, the family is still searching for answers.

“There is a constant circle of blame,” says Matthew, who still lives with his parents. “We want answers, as humans we always want to know why, and in this case two plus two just didn’t equal four.

Matthew Smith, now aged 24 (If U Share Care)

“Even till this day it affects our family. It affects me and my parents and some days are really difficult. I was 10 and he was 19, growing up and coming to the age that Daniel was, I found it really tough to come to terms with the fact I would outlive my older brother.”

Matthew and Ben turned to charity work as they tried to cope with the loss, raising £48,000 for the Samaritans by selling wristbands they had designed with the slogan: “If U Care Share.”

The message became the name of a foundation set up in Daniel’s memory, which started in their spare bedroom but now has spoken to 30,000 young people across the country about suicide.

The charity, which has 15 staff, also sits on the all-party parliamentary group for suicide prevention.

Matthew joined the charity full-time when he was 17, alongside his mother and brother, speaking and running workshops at schools, youth centres and football clubs. He says: “You have to find what helps and keep a hold of it. You need to drag it through with you and that’s what I did.

The wristband was sold at football stadiums across the North East

”Talking is huge but for a lot of people in that instance, trying to verbalise how you are feeling can be really so difficult. Try and write it down, you have to communicate with somebody, you can’t go through it by yourself.

“We have made links all over the world and we brought a lot of ideas back from the US that we have put in place in the UK.”

Then earlier this year, along with charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) which campaigns to reduce suicides among men, Matthew started his petition to make suicide prevention the responsibility of a specific government minister.

Last year the female suicide rate among 15 to 19-year-olds was the highest since records began, while suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45.

Matthew says he was pessimistic about the petition, which was set up on change.org, but as it gathered pace, his hopes grew of making a real difference. Then last week, with the petition standing on more than 380,000 signatures, he received the phone call telling him that his family’s decade of campaigning had made an impact and Jackie Doyle-Price was to be appointed as the minister for suicide prevention.

“It was a sense of fulfilment. All I have wanted was to try and stop others going through what I went through when I lost Dan,” he says. “This helps to fulfil that goal. I know this doesn’t mean we will prevent everyone from taking their own lives but it gives us some accountability and we have somebody who we can turn to and say, this is what you have to do.”

Matthew is adamant that Daniel would still be here today had he been given the message that his foundation has been growing ever since. He added: “No matter what’s going on and no matter how bad it is, there is hope.”

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For confidential support call Samaritans on 116 123.

If you have been affected by this story, you can contact the following organisations for support:

https://www.mind.org.uk/

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/