On Friday, March 9th, McFadden’s Movement was proud to host Ian Davies as the MM27 Ambassador of the Game.
Ian, a 12+ student at John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute in Guelph, shared his incredible mental health with the Movement, including the loss of two close friends to suicide.
Ian remembers the loss of his teammate and friend on January 21, 2017, explaining that’s when he became a whole different person.
“That had a great effect on me. I started to get down on myself all the time, didn’t care about anything and got so stressed out with the amount of school work I had fallen behind on,” Ian said.
In the April following the loss, Ian attempted to take his own life.
“My parents took me to the hospital and I was there for a couple days,” Ian remembered. “After being released, I started to see a psychologist, but I just couldn’t connect.”
Unable to connect with the help he had, Ian shared that it led to believing he wouldn’t be able to connect with anyone and the feeling that no one was going to be able to help him. Two months later in June, Ian attempted to take his own life again.
This time, Ian shared, it took going to his family doctor in Fergus with his parents where police officers took him to the hospital.
“I thought I was going to talk about being prescribed medication but instead I walked into the office and I saw that were were [police officers] ready to take me to the hospital,” Ian explained. “I lost it on my parents and my doctor – I didn’t want to go back. It was at that time where my depression was at the highest it had ever been since January.”
Ian was then in the Fergus hospital for five days, waiting on a list for the Child Adolescent Inpatient Program at the hospital in Kitchener.
“I was diagnosed with severe depression at that time,” Ian shared, adding that after leaving the hospital, things began turning around for the better.
Fast forward to December 10, 2017, Ian lost his best friend who he had known since he was just four years old to suicide – losing a second friend to suicide in less than a year.
“I told him my story and told him if he was feeling depressed to call me, but that never happened,” Ian explained. “He showed no signs of depression to anyone he knew. I was in complete shock and I didn’t believe it when I got that phone call.”
“Ever since then, I wear his favourite hat every single day and always will,” Ian continued in memory of his friend.
A month following the loss, Ian attempted his own life for the third time.
“This time, I was seconds away from being successful until I saw my mom’s car pull in the drive way,” Ian shared.
Now, Ian is currently attending counselling once to twice a week.
“I want a change when it comes to mental health and kids [dying by] suicide,” he said.
Connect with the Movement on Twitter, Facebook, and on Instagram.
McFadden's Movement 