Not the easiest way to make a living nowadays.
Former England Under-20s wing Selorm Kuadey dies aged 24 after apparent suicide
Selorm Kuadey, the former Sale Sharks and England Under-20s wing who was prematurely forced to retire from rugby in 2010 on medical advice having struggled with ankle injuries, has died as the result of what is believed to be suicide.
Kudos to Vodafone, giving up the front of the Dublin shirt to this for the opening NFL games.
Another sportsman reveals his battle with depression - Clyde Rathbone, for a while looked like the next big thing in Australian rugby, good player though.
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OâBrien treated for depression
By Darren Norris
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Leeds defender Andy OâBrien will receive the clubâs full support as he bids to win back his first-team place after receiving treatment for depression.
Manager Simon Grayson declared OâBrien had no future at Elland Road after the centre-half refused to play in Leedsâ 2-1 win at Burnley in November and the 32-year-old has been sidelined since.
But following an internal inquiry the club have urged fans to give the former Republic of Ireland international their full support after his treatment at the Sporting Chance clinic.
A club statement read: "The club brought disciplinary action against the player following his refusal to play against Burnley on the November 19, 2011. It was announced at that time that the playerâs future would be determined after a full investigation. The investigation has led to a fuller understanding of the issues that the player has faced since the start of the season, which has seen him seek specialist medical treatment at the Sporting Chance Clinic for depression. He is now ready to recommence training and the club will facilitate any further treatment that is required.
"On this basis we believe he deserves a second chance and we will do everything we can to assist him.ââ
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/sport/soccer/obrien-treated-for-depression-182227.html#ixzz1l7LtIp5B [/left][/left]
Iâm all for people dealing with their problems and everything, but does every sportsperson who has a form of depression / mental illness now have to announce it publicly? At this rate people will stop taking any notice. Or else start to resent or not believe the latest sportsperson who announces it.
I would disagree with that Fitzy. The more itâs talked about, the less stigma there will be attached to it and the more acceptable itâll become. If it reduces any amount of suicides then it can only be a positive. I kind of see what youâre getting at but even 12 months ago, some of the above players would have cited phantom injury problems as being the reason why they were out of the game.
I know of some people who have been diagnosed with depression and on medication for it but still canât admit it themselves due to the stigma or wrongness attached to it. People need to realise that itâs an illness, and like with all illnesses a mix of medication and other help (in this case professional help) should help with a cure, although it may not be a permanent one.
I know what youâre saying Mac and I agree, but I have a feeling that a point could be reached soon where the public get a bit sick of a load of sportspeople coming out saying they suffer from depression. The whole point of it gets diluted.
Spot on fitzy, fuck them, let them suffer in silence the overpaid cunts.
Well in the above case it makes sense to announce it, given that if he just appeared back in the team there would be a lot of abuse directed at him which Iâm sure would do nothing to help him battle with depression.
Yeah I get what youâre saying. But as Runt says in this case it seems appropriate, but then thereâs the case of Martin Fagan where some have doubts if he was being completely honest when saying depression caused him to take EPO.
Three people now die from suicide every day of the year
By Ralph Riegel and Barry Duggan
Monday February 06 2012
THREE people are taking their own lives on average each day in Ireland, with fears growing that nearly 1,000 people will die by suicide this year.
Gardai and support groups are monitoring known suicide âblackspotsâ â including the quays in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford as well as sea cliffs in Clare â in a bid to help those in crisis
Suicide helpline ILife revealed that it was struggling to cope with 99 contacts a day, amounting to more than 33,000 pleas for help each year.
Pat Buckley, founder of charity Letâs Get Together, lost his two brothers to suicide and said he feared Ireland was on course to record more than 900 suicides this year.
âThe problem with the suicide statistics is that they take about two years to compile â and even then they are relatively inaccurate and under-report the true scale of the problem,â he warned.
âThe problem is now so serious it is terrifying. Weâve battled to raise âŹ5,000 in funds and it was spent on counselling in just a few weeks over November and December,â he said.
Mr Buckley, from Midleton in east Cork, lost his brothers Mark and James to suicide in 2002 and 2003. He founded Letâs Get Together in their memory.
Ireland recorded 527 suicides in 2009 and the figure for 2010 is expected to top 600.
Tragedy
Experts fear that the true figure is far higher, with an estimated 40pc of all undetermined deaths reckoned to be suicides.
âThe tragedy is that I believe we will see over 900 suicides in Ireland this year â almost three suicides for every day of the year,â Mr Buckley said.
The Central Statistics Office confirmed that men were four times more likely to die by suicide than women, with males aged 15-24 the highest risk category.
In Clare, suicide accounted for 10 times the number of deaths from fatal road accidents last year. There were 19 deaths by suicide compared with two road deaths.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Moosajee Bhamjee described the rise as âshocking and frighteningâ.
âI believe that the effect of the recession is only adding to the numbers committing suicide. The official numbers taking their own lives is always under-reported and I believe that you can add 20pc to the official figure,â he said.
The Cliffs of Moher in Clare ranks as one of the worst suicide âblackspotsâ.
Two bodies were recovered from the River Blackwater in Cork in the space of just 18 hours last week, while three bodies were taken from the River Lee in Cork over the course of two days shortly before Christmas.
In Limerick, volunteers now patrol the River Shannon along the city quays.
The patrols began before Christmas by the Countrywide Emergency Response Team (CERT) in response to mounting concern over the number of bodies being taken from the River Shannon.
- Ralph Riegel and Barry Duggan
This is a really weird one. In a way youâre kinda happy that the woman is at peace and her suffering is over, but itâs weird to hear people talking about suicide as such a positive thing later in the article.
AN MS sufferer travelled for two hours in an electric wheelchair to commit suicide in a canal - after her twin sister refused to buy her flight to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.
The day before Carol Hutchins died, she arrived home in floods of tears after the lever on her buggy had jammed leaving her unable to throw herself over a 3ft fence and into the water.
Determined to end her life, Mrs Hutchins returned to the canal the following day and got the mechanism working to lift the chair above the height of the fence.
The 53-year-old waited until a crew of workmen cleaning graffiti nearby went on a break before heaving her body, which was immobile from the chest down, into the water.
When the labourers returned to the towpath of the Kennet and Avon Canal in Reading, Berks., they found the empty wheelchair and then spotted Carol floating face-down in the water.
Police constable Victoria Blaszko (corr) leapt over the 3ft fence and dragged the middle-aged womanâs body from the water as fellow officers, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the towpath.
Mrs Hutchins, who had been described as a vibrant woman with a âlarger than life personalityâ, was taken to hospital where she was declared dead shortly after arrival on October 22 last year.
A post mortem examination gave the cause of her death as drowning.
The Berkshire coroner heard that Mrs Hutchins was diagnosed with MS in 1989 and had taken part in marathons before MS ravaged her body and left her wheelchair bound.
Her sister, Ingrid Foan, said that in July 2010 her depressed sister was unable to do anything for herself and begged her to buy a one way plane ticket to Switzerland so she could end her life.
âShe was terrified by what was happening to her,â she tearfully told the hearing in Windsor, Berks.
She told how her sister had said that she had âlost everything and didnât want to live like this anymore,â and had previously spoken of throwing herself into the canal.
Ingrid explained that after a 10-week hospital stay her siblingâs condition had improved and she was able to do much more for herself.
Carolâs devastated parents, Alec and Ursula, said they believed their daughter had planned to end her life before her condition worsened further and she could no longer control her destiny.
Mr Hutchins said: "We think she planned it while she was in hospital.
âShe didnât involve anyone else. She knew exactly what MS was and what it was doing to her.â
When asked whether they thought Carol had taken her own life, Mr Hutchins replied: âIâm in no doubt.â
In recording his verdict coroner Peter Bedford said that Carol was suffering from a âhorribleâ disease at the time of her death.
âFrom the evidence given to me I am quite satisfied that Carol Hutchins died on October 22 last year at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and that she took her own life while suffering from multiple sclerosis and depression.â
Speaking before the hearing Mr Hutchins called for assisted suicide to be legalised.
âCarol was a very courageous woman but at the end of the day she has demonstrated a need for euthanasia in this country,â he said.
"People say life is precious but there comes a point when life is not precious and it becomes torture for those that are living.
"Carol had thought about going to Dignitas in Switzerland but it is very expensive and it puts other people in a difficult position.
"It showed tremendous courage for her to do what she did all alone and I believe that she had planned it after having enough of being a prisoner in her own home.
âShe knew one more setback could leave her totally immobilised and she wouldnât be able to do anything for herself and she would just be washed, dressed and stuck in front of the television.â
Another terrible case yesterday where a 35 year old mother heavily pregnant with twins threw herself into the sea at Howth. Leaves a toddler and husband behind.
3 lads from back West Clare recently. Very sad
Christ thatâs fairly horrific.
Awful stuff alright.
On another note, and as a demonstration of how small Ireland is, Iâm friends with people who are closely related to: that poor lady, the Irish lad missing in India and the poor chap murdered in Thurles from Kilkenny. Which is kind of odd and slightly unsettling.
Fairly tragic stuff from home this evening. A priest who used to be one of the main priests in Enniscorthy took his own life and was found this morning. Heâd spent the last few years as the priest in a village outside gorey. Allegations broke last May against him from some woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her while he was studying the priesthood in St Peters all of 30 odd years previously. He stood down immediately pending a full investigation.
She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital shortly afterwards and withdrew all allegations but the damage was done. Even with the allegations withdrawn an investigation was still mooted and as she was in psychiatric care there were some issues with him clearing his name. He ended up in care himself amid fears for his own life as his father and his uncle had both committed suicide previously. He had been in a well known hospital in Dublin but was moved to a place closer to home recently but was supposedly on 24 hour watch and as I said was found dead this morning.
While I have mixed feelings about priests and the catholic church, this fella was the type that would walk around town without the need to wear a collar and never forced religion onto anyone. Often met him at GAA matches and racing the odd time. As sound as a priest could be if that makes sense. Tragic the way he chose to end things and heâll be a loss to everyone who knew him.
(Rocko / Bandage - feel free to edit any details if needed as not sure where the line is drawn)
That DCU student was found in the Liffey today also.