A website called Prevent Suicide Now.Com recently came to my attention by chance. I almost sent it back into cyber obscurity with a mouse click as it seemed unlikely to be of any interest or use to me in my carefree home business programme.

My first thought was that a website dedicated to suicide must be macabre. However, a tour of website revealed that a great deal of loving work had gone into its creation. The site’s purpose is to prevent suicide and raise public awareness of subject. In America alone over 31,000 lives ended in 2002 as a result of suicide. That is one suicide every sixteen and a half minutes. Trends show suicide rate to be increasing.

There is a touching remembrance section on site. The first memorial on "wall of angels" is to a little girl aged 13 who was driven to suicide by school bullies. I could hardly bear to look at photographs of other beautiful, bright children who became "angels" in their teenage years. In year 2002 in America a total of 4,010 people below age of 24 committed suicide. That equates to 11 young lives destroyed each day. Suicide is third leading cause of death in 15-24 age group.

Suicide is a subject which most of us would wish to avoid. We would rather not think about it, let alone discuss it. We are uncomfortable when dealing with people who have been bereaved through suicide and feel helpless when somebody we know is tormented by suicidal thoughts.

Our reluctance to contemplate issue of suicide is understandable. It is painful and we don’t want to be reminded of our own mortality, but we would be better equipped to deal with issue if we were brave enough to face suicide and become familiar with its features. The ability to recognise enemy would give us a better chance of knowing when help should be sought.

Seeing photographs of young suicide victims reminded me of two young women I used to know but had not thought of for some time. I was friends with both these women but they never met each other. Their lives, however, strangely paralleled each other for a while when they reached age of 25.

One day you have a good job, a nice home and good health – so you think. Then you go to Doctor to find out why your indigestion keeps getting worse and why you’re so tired all time. You just kept thinking that you were working to hard and probably way too many hours – which you were just to keep your job.

Then you find out you have to have a multiple bypass operation on your heart. You have 90% blockages in two arteries and 50% blockage in three more arteries. After you pick yourself up off floor from that good news and let it sink in.

You think, well I better call my boss and tell him I want be in for a couple of months. So you call and tell him what is going on and ask for some time off, without pay of course. As you will need time for operation and recovery period.

Well your Boss is all so very understanding and says he hopes you get to feeling better, etc. Then you get -- “Oh by way” speech. He proceeds to tell you – “Our company policy is that if you can’t work when, where and how we tell you to work then we don’t need you -- So you’re fired and good luck”!

Now that really gets you in right frame of mind to be going into surgery, doesn’t it?

Well you DO have best Doctor in three states and you come through surgery great. Then they move you from Cardiac Care Unit to your room for a few more days of recovery before they send you home. Everything with your surgery has gone great but now you start worrying about all bills and finding another job, etc.

All worry starts hampering your recovery and Doctor tells you -- “Let’s get you well and then you’ll be able to find yourself another good job”! But you have to get well first.

Up until now you thought things were starting to look rather burdensome until “IT” happens to you. Everything up until now has just been warming you up for final blow. Your wife is on way back to hospital, to stay with you for evening, when she gets a call from neighbors. They tell her “you need to get back to your house ASAP”!

When she gets there house is in flames and firemen are busy trying to save what’s left. They manage to get a couple things out and a few pictures – but that’s it. Then neighbor’s remember they haven’t seen your puppy. He’s like your child since children have all grown up and moved off and he is all two of you have left. The firemen race back into house and save him. But within a few hours he succumbs to smoke inhalation complications and dies.