Console opens consultation rooms in London

The Irish suicide prevention and bereavement charity Console says its new London-based counselling rooms donated by the family of former Welsh footballer and manager, Gary Speed, will save lives.

The Gary Speed Rooms are situated in one of Console’s two new locations in the heart of London. Gary’s mother, Carol, said she felt that the rooms would be a fitting tribute to her son’s legacy.

Gary took his own life in November 2011, at the age of 42, and Console has established very close links with his family in the last few years.

“If the Gary Speed Rooms help one person in mental health crisis, then that will be a success. It is a terrible thing to feel in trouble and people need to know that that they have somewhere to turn to,” said Carol. “We haven’t got any answers about Gary’s death and we probably never will but, as a family, we know that Console are always there and only a phone call away.”

Gary’s sporting pals, including Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, and Gordon Strachan, who took part in a series of charity golf days to honour his memory, helped finance the rooms.

Console’s counselling rooms were launched yesterday by Baroness Heyhoe Flint at the House of Lords but the charity is no stranger to London.

It has featured at a number of suicide prevention and bereavement conferences in Britain and has spent the past two years establishing itself in London.

Console said representatives from the health services, the Metropolitan Police, church groups, and voluntary agencies had urged it to extend its unique service to Britain. Console was established by Paul Kelly in 2002 after he lost a loved one by suicide.

www.console.ie