Shirley Ballas in tears as she speaks out on brother's tragic suicide: 'There were signs'
22.06.2022 - 19:18
/ ok.co.uk
Strictly Come Dancing star Shirley Ballas was in tears as she urged people to “be vigilant and ask more questions” of their loved ones, after reflecting on the “preventable” suicide of her brother. The entertainer, 61, said she failed to spot any signs that her older brother and “protector” David was suicidal before he took his own life in 2003 at the age of 44, despite the pair of them speaking every day on the phone.
David’s picture is one of several featured in an interactive exhibition called The Last Photo, by the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) on London’s Southbank, depicting the smiling faces of 50 people who died by suicide shortly after each photograph was taken. Ballas, who is a Calm ambassador, said she hopes the hard-hitting campaign will break down the taboo of suicide and help educate people about the signs to look for in someone who is struggling – a campaign she believes would have saved the life of her brother.
She told the PA news agency: “Sometimes we can look at somebody with their bright, happy, smiley face, and they’re going about their business and doing their work. “So you don’t think anything of it.
And deep down inside they’re really dying, they really need to reach out. “For whatever reason, they don’t – this is half of the stigma, this is half of the battle.
But just because somebody presents a front of this happy, smiley face, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s how they’re feeling. “So that’s why we have to be more vigilant, we have to ask more questions, we have to listen as well.” Ballas said she had “never in a million years” thought that her older brother was suicidal, but acknowledges, reflecting regularly on their last weeks together, there were signs that he was unwell.
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