A Yorkshire mum is working to raise money to fund a community wellbeing hub in memory of her son who took his own life.
Three years ago, Katy Smith lost her son Ruben Ferrol to suicide aged just 18, and decided to try to take action to help other people struggling with their mental health. As a result, she set up Ruben’s Voice, a group which sets up events and challenges for people to participate in.
Ruben had begun to struggle with his mental health at high school, losing his confidence. Katy, from Hedon in East Yorkshire, said: “He was, he was perfect. Unfortunately he couldn’t see how.
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“He enjoyed music, he enjoyed anything exciting or fun. He was brilliant as a kid, he lost his confidence when he went to secondary school, he found being a teenager incredibly difficult and started making choices that weren’t maybe going to make him very happy, and he didn’t tell us he was poorly.
“We said ‘are you alright?’ and he said ‘I’m fine, stop fussing’ and then he was gone.” Katy added: “We don’t want anyone to die, but we don’t want anybody to be living feeling like they want to die. So we need to try and improve everybody’s well-being so they don’t get to the point Ru was at.”
Now, Katy is working to set up the community wellbeing hub in Hedon, and has already rented a field and got a port-a-cabin set up. They’re currently aiming to get a generator set up to provide power as there is no electricity on the site.
There is an outdoor gym on the site as well and goalposts have been set up so people can play football. Katy added that when she asked teenagers in the town what they wanted, they just responded that they just wanted “somewhere to go and something to do”.
In addition, a lot of older people are lonely and many young families also struggle to find things to do. Katy hopes her wellbeing hub, when it is officially opened, will help serve them.
To raise money to support the centre, Katy has decided to do a sponsored skydive after Ruben’s friends mentioned the idea to her. She said: “Whatever they [Ruben’s friends] ask for, I do for them, so they said ‘right, can we do a skydive?’ and I said ‘I’ll organise it for you but there’s not a chance I’m jumping’.
“Then, it turns out that I am jumping along with 20 people. We’re all doing the jump together and I think it’s an awful idea, but I’ve somehow managed to get roped into it.”
The group will be jumping on June 16 and are currently working to raise as much money as possible to support Ruben’s voice. You can donate to Katy’s fundraiser here.
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