This journey of setting up the Ginger Heart Foundation is one of waking up to a lot of new things I did not know. We have an initial aim and that is to raise awareness about the link between taking alcohol and cocaine together and the risk of suicide in the comedown. It doesn’t happen every time, it is an unpredictable event. Someone could have used cocaine when they are drinking once, ten times or maybe engaged in it for years without it causing them to take their own life.

The question I chose for my MSc dissertation is, ‘what is known about cocaine and alcohol induced suicide?’. I needed to gather all the facts, understand the evidence base behind what happened to my son on the morning of 3^rd October 2021, when with no warning, no underlying issues and no risk factors, the thing that led to him taking his own life was the fact that he had been on a day and night out drinking alcohol and taking cocaine.

It has taken me 18 months to conduct the research necessary to do a thorough and systematic integrative review of the literature. I had a Doctor of Research, second review the method to ensure that the process of literature selection for inclusion in the dissertation was robust and transparent to avoid any bias on my part due to the personal nature of the content.

It was hard, in so many ways, not least that this link has been talked about in research dating as far back as 1980’s, before Shaun was even born. Gathering the data and examining thousands of toxicology findings of people who had completed suicide in the hours or day after using alcohol and cocaine, where the results were the same as my own son, is harder than I can describe here.  

We are fighting a battle, to get this information into the public health domain, to inform people who take cocaine and alcohol, to change the data collection methods so we can get a clearer picture of the numbers and to have this information included in national drug and alcohol literature and in the suicide prevention strategy. I am hopeful that soon we will have the true figures of how many of the young male suicide statistics in the UK and beyond are related to recreational powder cocaine and alcohol use.

I do not want it to be that proving this link exists is my life’s work, I want to help people and fulfil the wider aims of Ginger Heart Foundation and my own heart. I want to continue the legacy of my big, beautiful son, in loving and helping people. I want to make a difference, but first we have to ensure that the facts are heard by the right people and the right actions are taken.

Please educate yourself, become part of the voice to save lives. Please look at our cocaine and alcohol booklet, which you can find on our Facebook Page, or our website at www.gingerheart.org in the evidence and resources section.

Together we are stronger and together, we can make a difference!