Kirsty

I want to tell you a little story of my friend Kirsty.

Totally unrelated to my blog but today is the anniversary of the death of one of my best friends from school. 4 years ago today Kirsty decided she had no other way out than to take her own life. How wrong could she be.

Let me take you back to Burford school in Oxfordshire 2005. Me and my best mate Kirsty used to cause absolute havoc! Backchat teachers, bunk off lessons sneak off up the field and smoke and just generally be naughty little buggers! Oh the fun we had! Our friends loved us and the teachers hated us! She was funny, smart kind and we had so much fun getting into mischief together.

I’m not going to go into to much detail as it wouldn’t be fair, but I think it would be fair to say that Kirsty had problems for a number of years. That unfortunately got overlooked by a lot of people myself included. We didn’t really talk much after leaving school which is a real shame. She had things going on as did I and we just drifted apart.

We would message every now and again on Facebook, her joking that she was going to knuckle down and be good. Then one day 4 years ago whilst at work I had that message nobody ever wants to recieve. Kirsty had taken her own life, I was speechless and devastated. How could this be true how could a 26 year old with her whole life ahead of her suddenly not be here anymore? It took me a long time to accept that she had gone. It never really sunk in until the funeral, one of the saddest days of my life.

Sometime after I was flicking through my messages on Facebook and up came her name. I decided I was going to look and I didnt like what I had found. The 2 last messages I ever sent her asking if she was ok she had not read. I sobbed for a long time over this thinking would of things been different if she had read my message?

A while after this I was going through some old school stuff and would you believe I found a letter in pristine condition that she had written me at school! It only contains silly school stuff but it means the absolute world to me and I will treasure it forever. I would like to share that letter with you …

4 years on and I’ve raised almost £3,000 for various mental health charities for Kirsty and I aim to continue doing this in the near future.

I’m not really sure how to end this post to be honest except to say RIP Kirsty ❤️

Anyone reading this who might need help or someone to talk to please feel free to comment on the post or message me privately. Below are some useful numbers for anyone who needs them

Samaratins 116 123

Mind 0300 123 3393

Sane 0300 304 7000

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