Shelagh Fogarty's Interview With Father Of Student Who Took His Life
12 February 2019, 16:21 | Updated: 12 February 2019, 16:23
The father of a student who took his own life speaks out about how the initial media coverage of his death missed an opportunity to have a really useful conversation on mental health.
Ken Day's son, Archie, took his life after struggling with depression, but newspaper headlines reported that he 'hung himself after sobbing uncontrollably at losing his iPhone'.
Friends of the University of Salford media student were critical of the trivial reports that failed to draw attention to Archie's battle with depression.
Speaking to Shelagh Fogarty, Ken said it felt like the journalists were "laughing" Archie.
He said that Archie had been "struggling with his mental health for years and this was a culmination of years of struggling", but that the newspaper reports were "trivialising" his sons death.
"They're laughing at my boy, they're laughing at my son for clicks".
Watch the interview in full below.
"We're nowhere near where we should be when it comes to having an open discussion about mental health," he said.
"I think I have spent the last four and a half months picking apart every second of the last 20 years, wondering if there was something I did or could have said, as a parent you look back and think about it."
