Barney

Listen to Barney's story, as told by his Mum, Deborah

My son Barney didn't get to make his 22nd birthday.

He was such a beautiful boy - he was super funny, compassionate, incredibly loyal and he had so many friends. If anyone had told me that he would be the person to end up taking his life, I would never ever have believed it.

He had so much joy in his life - he was a brilliant tennis player, he loved music, he loved books, he loved films, he was a massive Harry Potter fan and he would sit with groups of friends and watch the movies on repeat.

It's almost impossible to think of a favourite memory of Barney because I have so many but perhaps one that I think I'll always always remember was at Christmas time. It was probably one of the first times as a child that he really understood Christmas and I can remember he walked in to the front room on Christmas day morning there was a big Christmas tree and they were presents under the tree and he just had this look on his face that was beyond excitement and he just looked it up and said "it's massive" and he went to the pile of presents. And then every Christmas Eve - even when he clearly didn't believe anymore - he would say ‘let's go ahead and put a carrot and a drink down’ and he went through the whole ritual because he wanted to believe it.

What I hope the campaign will achieve is to really encourage families to talk to their children, their young people and to really ask the question "how are you?" and really listen and really get to understand.