After 18 years of togetherness, I was left to pick up the pieces following Steve’s suicide, to manage my own grief, and to love and care for our two young children alone. Evie was nine years old, and Ada was just two. The unexpected loss of their father impacted them in every imaginable way. A father who was kind, caring and loving at home, and an inspiring and motivational leader at work.

We faced indescribable challenges when our family suddenly shifted from four to three. As time passed though, I tentatively began to share all I was learning about loss through suicide since Steve became one of those 6,000 people who die like this every year in the UK.

I opened up about the many ways I felt others could take comfort from the strength that emerged when our union of three, our mighty little triangle, began to heal. And I recorded our story of this journey from horror to hope in a book I called Daddy Blackbird: the true story of a family surviving and thriving after loss by suicide.

Initially, I wrote this book for people like me – women, mothers who were struggling to manage this monumental shift from wife to widow. But I’ve found my words reaching a much wider audience. In particular, men, battling their own demons while trying to live up to society’s expectations. And this is where much of my work is now focused.

Talking about mental health – and the impact on men in particular – has become more common and less of a stigma. That’s great but it seems clear there is much more work needed?

I completely agree. I receive messages most days from men who want to reach out privately because they don’t feel safe to speak out openly, suggesting they need help, but the stigma stops them: “Thank you, it’s posts like yours that hopefully make people think twice. I’ve followed you for a while but I’m not quite ready to read your book and I’m certainly not able to comment publicly.” It saddens me deeply every time I receive a message like this because it’s a stark reminder of where society still stands on this subject.

The issue around communicating mental wellness amongst men remains a challenge. How do we address this?

We need to get to grips with the underlying reasons to begin with. Through the conversations I have I’m told these range from the struggle to identify and name feelings to the fear of appearing weak and being judged as a ‘failure’. Men often worry too that career opportunities may be at risk if they show vulnerability, and they may be overlooked by managers and leaders.

Addressing all this involves a range of approaches but we could start with reconsidering the language we use around this topic and making it more relatable and accessible, particularly in the workplace. This is something I talk about a lot in the sessions I run. Simple switches from ‘poor mental health’ to ‘thriving under pressure’ suddenly become much more appealing.

Creating strong, visible, active networks can be a powerful way to address these apprehensions too. When we feel part of something, like we truly belong, we are much more likely to let our guard down and share our worries and concerns. Peer-to-peer support groups can be highly effective when it comes to tackling these issues because members unite over common challenges and take care of each other; that fear of judgment becomes less of an issue.