William’s visit to suicide prevention centre will help save lives – service user

The Prince of Wales’s visit to a centre which helps men who were thinking of suicide will help save lives, one of the service users has said.

William spoke to men who struggled with their mental health during a visit to the newly opened James’ Place in Newcastle.

It is the third centre to be opened by the charity, which was founded in 2008 by Clare Milford Haven and Nick Wentworth-Stanley, following the death of their son James.

The Newcastle University student took his own life aged just 21 after he was unable to find the urgent help he needed to deal with his suicidal thoughts.

William listened intently as Dean Stewart, 31, from Gateshead, told him how he struggled with thoughts of self-harm after he dealt with a gambling addiction.

After the visit, Mr Stewart said James’ Place had helped him so much in just four months that he was now studying to become a counsellor.

He said that the prince’s visit will “one million per cent” help to save lives of other men by publicising the facility, which takes self-referrals.

Mr Stewart said: “The Prince of Wales coming up means a lot more men will come through the doors rather than doing themselves harm.”

Officially opening the facility in the city’s West End, William said: “Every time I come here (to a James’ Place centre) I feel calm, relaxed.

“I feel like it is a safe space.”

James’s mother, who is the Marchioness of Milford Haven and is married to the King’s cousin, recalled going to his student accommodation in Jesmond, Newcastle, after his death to empty his room.

She found a note he wrote to his parents, and said: “It was incredibly moving and it professed his love for us and it was also very sad.

“I don’t want any dad, mum, girlfriend, anybody, to go through that.

“We want to change the way men are treated.”

Earlier, charity trustee Richard Swallow thanked the prince for coming to open the centre, and referred to the King being back on public-facing duties, and said: “It is good to see your father is out today.”

William replied: “Yes, yes, exactly.”

The prince is a long-standing mental health advocate.

William’s visit comes after the death in February of Thomas Kingston, 45, the son-in-law of the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, who was found with severe head injuries at his parents’ Cotswolds home, with a gun nearby.

Earlier on Tuesday, the prince visited Low Carbon Materials, which was a 2022 finalist for his Earthshot Prize.

William wore a white lab coat and safety goggles at the business in Seaham, County Durham, as he learnt how to make and test carbon-negative concrete samples for the construction industry using a material called Osto.

He met officials from National Highways, which has partnered with Low Carbon Materials, and spoke to investors and board members at the firm.

During the meeting William asked: “How do we get (the product) bigger” and joked that the company should say: “There’ll be no more potholes,” adding: “Potholes are the bane of everyone’s life.”

The future king said: “How do we get more people to see it… and know that this stuff is genuinely on the way to providing net zero roads, in theory, the full cycle of net zero homes.

“I mean there’s a world of things we could be doing here. I just think these guys are on to something.”

Before getting into a car at the end of the visit, William stopped to talk to Andrea Newton, from Houghton-le-Spring, who had brought her six-month-old grandson Luca to meet the prince.

He told her: “Hope he sleeps alright later,” before posing for a photo with the pair.