“Dear Mum, I wasn’t meant for this planet. You did everything you could so please don’t panic. No one likes me so I might as well vanish….”
The opening line of a fictional suicide letter from a boy to his Mum, this is an extract from the keynote speech given last year in Thailand to 1,300 One Young World delegates by Hussain Manawer, a 24-year-old poet and activist from Ilford – which won him a trip into space in 2018.
He says he’s dedicating the trip to “every single person who has suffered from mental health [problems]”.
I’ve just watched Hussain’s guest appearance on today’s episode of ‘The Wright Stuff’ on Channel 5.
I was so moved that I immediately went onto YouTube to watch his speech – it’s only a few minutes, well worth the time, and speaks for itself:
Whole People 