Travel journals of man, 22, who took own life to feature in tribute documentary

A collection of travel journals belonging to a young man who took his own life will be featured in a documentary as a gift to him for what would have been his 30th birthday.

Oliver Hare died at home on February 14, 2017, just two days before his 23rd birthday, and left his writings from his gap year adventures near to where he died.

His mother Ann Feloy and his close friends set up a charity in his memory to prevent suicide around the world and are fundraising to create a documentary about Mr Hare to be entered into international film festivals.

The charity Olly’s Future is fundraising £5,000 for the documentary, which will feature narration of Mr Hare’s travel journals and interviews with family and friends on their journey of grief and loss.

Mrs Feloy said: “He kept amazing journals of all his travels around Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the whole of South America.

“He left them in quite a prominent place when he died. So, I felt he had placed them there for us to find and read, they’re going to be part woven into the film as well.

“It’s my gift. As well as our work, I just feel what else can I do for him? He’s not with me, so this is the best thing I can do for his 30th birthday.”

The mother of two said it took her years to read the diaries and, with the help of friends, has typed up and edited them to be published in a book called Oliver’s Travels alongside the film.

Mr Hare had been the “life and soul of the party” when he studied history at University College London but then found himself “really lost” in the transition period after university, Mrs Feloy said.

The 22-year-old from Worthing was teaching English in Shanghai, China, and when he came back to the UK for Chinese New Year, he saw a doctor about his anxiety and depression in January 2017.

After speaking to a second doctor to say he was still feeling low, he was prescribed anti-depressant citalopram over the phone, despite never having a history of mental health issues, his mum said.

Mrs Feloy said: “After taking that for four days it massively increased his anxiety and he took his own life.

“I really can’t help feeling that had he been seen face to face, had he had a therapeutic conversation with the doctor about suicide, it may well have saved him.”

Olly’s Future became a charity in 2020 and Mrs Feloy campaigned for a change in medical guidelines that means doctors now should see first-time patients who are under 25, face to face, for prescribing anti-depressants.

“I feel like I’ve achieved something there,” the grandmother of two said.

One of the charity’s flagship programmes is now working with medical students to provide suicide prevention training.

Dr SAMS (Suicide Awareness in Medical Students) has been rolled out to six medical schools across the country and the charity is now talking to medical schools across the world.

Earlier this month, the campaigner also spoke to policy chiefs in Downing Street calling for all medical students to have suicide prevention as part of their core curriculum which currently does not exist, Mrs Feloy said.

She said: “I believe I was given this purpose. It was not what I would have chosen in a million years. I didn’t have a career in the medical profession at all.

“It has led me down this path but I also want to celebrate all of my son’s life because he was the most fun-loving, amazingly talented, happy, charismatic person and I am sure the film will convey that.”

The charity chief executive said of this birthday milestone: “If he’d have been here we would have had a big party for him. He had so many friends and wonderful people in his life that would want to have celebrated his 30th. And some of those are now the trustees of the charity.

“I think every year is hard, but this birthday milestone was particularly heartbreaking. So, I’m so pleased that I’ve had this focus of creating the film and the book for him.”