{"id":339596,"date":"2025-08-12T22:39:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T22:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339596\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T22:39:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T22:39:24","slug":"leeds-celebrities-rally-behind-powerful-suicide-prevention-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/339596\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Celebrities Rally Behind Powerful Suicide Prevention Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stars from TV and sport in Leeds have given their celebrity backing to a campaign calling for more people across the city to sign up as \u2018Suicide Prevention Champions\u2019.<\/p>\n

Actors from the cast of Leeds-based ITV soap Emmerdale appear in a new film alongside Leeds United player Brenden Aaronson and Leeds Rhinos captain Cameron Smith to rally people across Leeds and beyond to work together and prevent suicide.<\/p>\n

The film, compiled by Leeds City Council\u2019s<\/a> public health team, encourages people to sign up as West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Champions, to reduce stigma, share messages of hope and connect those in need to potentially life-saving support and resources.<\/p>\n

Anyone can sign up as a champion \u2013 by watching a 20-minute video, completing an online form and making a pledge, big or small, about how they plan to promote suicide prevention at home, in the community, at work or online.<\/p>\n

Champions can then download a digital badge, an information pack and access an array of campaign resources to help spread the word.<\/p>\n

In the film, the city\u2019s stars share the pledges they\u2019ve made as Suicide Prevention Champions and urge others to join the cause.<\/p>\n

Actress and TV presenter Lisa Riley, who opens the film, says:<\/strong> \u201cSuicide is more common in West Yorkshire than the rest of England. Nationally it is our biggest killer of men and women aged between 20 and 34. We believe that every suicide is preventable and have a zero-suicide vision for West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can work to change things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are urging everyone in West Yorkshire to sign up to become a Suicide Prevention Champion by learning more about suicide, helping to challenge stigma and encouraging action.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether we can bring down the suicide rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tracy<\/p>\n

Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, also features in the film and said her pledge is to reach out to her friends and \u201cmake sure if someone\u2019s gone quiet on WhatsApp, I\u2019ll call them, not just text\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Suicide Prevention Champions campaign was initially launched in 2022 by West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, of which Leeds City Council is a member, and is hosted online at\u00a0www.suicidepreventionwestyorkshire.co.uk\/becomeachampion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The website also offers information on a range of suicide prevention support and resources available across West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

In Leeds, the suicide rate remains higher than the England average, with the latest data\u00a0by the Office for National Statistics showing the city\u2019s three-year average suicide rate in 2021-2023 was 11.6 per 100,000 people \u2013 compared to England\u2019s rate of 10.7.<\/p>\n

The Leeds Strategic Suicide Prevention Group has set a target of recruiting at least 194 Suicide Prevention Champions in the city \u2013 one for every Leeds resident who died by suicide between 2019 and 2021, according to Leeds City Council\u2019s most recent suicide audit.<\/p>\n

Reducing suicide and the stigma around it is priority among partners across the city, as part of work to make Leeds a mentally healthy city \u2013 a key objective in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2030.<\/p>\n

Leeds City Council also commissions the Leeds Suicide Bereavement Service, for anyone affected or bereaved by suicide.<\/p>\n

Councillor Fiona Venner, Leeds City Council\u2019s executive member for equality, health and wellbeing<\/strong>, said: \u201cPreventing suicide is a key priority of our public health work and it\u2019s great to see so much happening in the city to break the stigma and amplify awareness of the wide range of support that\u2019s available to anyone who needs it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving such star-powered backing to the Suicide Prevention Champions campaign is incredible and we hope everyone watching this new film feels inspired to join the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Eaton, Leeds City Council\u2019s director of public health,<\/strong>\u00a0added: \u201cAnyone can be a Suicide Prevention Champion \u2013 each and every one of us can play our part in bringing the city\u2019s suicide rate down.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the signs of when someone might need help and how to have those vital conversations about suicide are skills we can all develop and I would urge everyone to consider signing up to find out more. You might just save a life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image and video credits: Leeds City Council<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stars from TV and sport in Leeds have given their celebrity backing to a campaign calling for more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-339596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115018200980966215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}