Posted on 29th Jan
Magnus Church of England Academy students welcomed Tom Dickenson from Tom Talks, a platform dedicated to raising awareness about mental health and education, for sessions focused on practical strategies for improving mental health and wellbeing, as well as the importance of making positive life choices.
Speaking to an assembly, and also smaller groups of students, Tom spoke openly about his own struggles after losing his 22-year-old brother to suicide in 2015.
He explained that living through that grief ultimately pushed him to support others with their mental health, sharing the insights he’s gained along the way.
Tom said: “My aim is to raise awareness around mental health, and to encourage young people to talk to and support each other. Most of all, to understand that it is okay not to be okay.
“I want young people to have the necessary tools, habits and systems — and the mindset they need to enable them to do whatever it is they want to achieve with their life.”
Tom said he hoped that his experiences would be relatable, adding: “It is important to me because I lost my brother to suicide in 2015, and I quickly found myself in a very dark place.
“But I am lucky, I managed to get through to the other side. Following this struggle, a school in Sheffield asked me to speak to their students, which I eventually did in 2019, and that was the beginning of Tom Talks.
“When I did that, I felt like it was what I had been put here to do.”
Tom said that by sharing the strategies he has developed, he hopes to help others who are struggling to navigate mental health issues.
“I really want to build resilience in young people, and to use my story to show that I have pulled myself back from the depths of despair, and that if I can do it, then others can too,” he said.
“I am just a normal lad from Barnsley, and I think my message reaches students because of that. I hope it makes it easy for them to relate to me and to gain something from my experience.”
Georgia Andrews, pastoral support base manager and deputy DSL at Magnus, said Tom’s visit was arranged after a local couple, moved by the tragic loss of their own son to suicide, offered to fund wellbeing sessions for students at Magnus.
“I am deeply grateful to Jane Beardsley and Mark Gamble for their powerful initiative to make conversations about mental health more accessible for all.
“When they approached me and shared their story of tragically losing their son to suicide, I was profoundly moved by their courage and their commitment to creating positive change.
Through their charity, Paul’s Pit Stop, they have offered secondary schools the opportunity to host fully-funded assemblies and workshops delivered by Tom Talks, a passionate mental health advocate who speaks openly about his own journey and the loss of his brother to suicide.
“It is vital that our students hear the message that it is perfectly okay not to be okay. Tom’s session has opened the door to more honest, compassionate conversations about mental health within our school community, and we are incredibly thankful for the impact it has already made.”
