A CHARITY set up after a young graduate took his own life has been awarded a grant to support more students struggling with their mental health.

Olly’s Future, which runs a suicide awareness in medical students programme at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, has won a £20,000 grant to offer suicide prevention training.

The charity was set up after the death of Oliver Hare, a 22-year-old from Worthing, in 2017.

The Argus: Olliver and Ann on the return from his gap yearOlliver and Ann on the return from his gap year

His mother Ann Feloy, chairwoman of Olly’s Future, said the funding will allow the programme to continue running.

She said: “The grant enables Olly's Future to equip hundreds more medical students with vital skills to talk about suicide to their friends and colleagues, and later on, use this knowledge and understanding in their careers to help patients.

"It gives our small charity, set up in memory of my beloved son Oliver, the credibility and authority we need, to ensure the programme can run going forward.”

The first part of the programme is 90-minute, online suicide prevention training which will be delivered to more than 350 medical students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Professor Juliet Wright, director of undergraduate teacher and learning, said: “I can say that the students have benefited enormously from the programme and the very real and practical support this gives them is its strength.

“Students leave with a confidence to take the next steps should they need too, and that is such a very valuable skill to have given them.”

Oliver, a graduate from University College London, took his own life just two days before his 23rd birthday.

In a statement on the Olly’s Future website, his family described him as a “truly special” and someone who “brought joy, happiness and laughter wherever he went”.

But after returning from teaching English in Shanghai, his family said he seemed to go “suddenly into reverse”.

Oliver saw a doctor in early January 2017 and said he was feeling anxious, depressed, lost and unsure about the future.

He was prescribed an antidepressant and he died four days later.

To find out more about Olly’s Future, visit https://ollysfuture.org.uk/.

If you have been affected by this story, the Samaritans charity has a free helpline you can call on 116 123, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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