Dr. Alex George felt "a lot of guilt and shame" when his brother took his own life.
Dr. Alex George opens up about coping with the death of his brother
The 32-year-old TV star - who shot to fame when he competed on 'Love Island' in 2018 - now serves as the UK Youth Mental Health Ambassador within the Department for Education and after his brother Llŷr took his own life at the age of just 19 during the COVID-19 pandemic has admitted that he often wondered if he could have spotted any signs that something was seriously wrong.
Speaking on the 'Let's Start Talking' podcast, he told 'Loose Women' star Coleen Nolan: "It was the midst of the pandemic, he found it difficult with the lockdown as a lot of young people did but perhaps in context with what was going on, you'd expect them to be pretty fed up. So, no, I wouldn't say we expected things at all. But obviously, you look back and think 'What can you predict, what can you look at?' It was very hard on my mum and dad. It was them three, they were living together at the time. It was hard as a brother as well. I was working in London at the time, I was making videos for Instagram and YouTube about looking after your mental health during the pandemic. I released a video two weeks before he died and when something like that happens you feel a lot of guilt and shame in yourself because you wonder what you could have spotted."
The former A+E doctor went on to add that he will "carry" the guilt for the rest of his life but is now able to look at the situation more objectively although he still believes that it is a "preventable" cause of death.
He added: "I think that's something I'll carry for the rest of my life but I'm much more able to look at it now and see that ultimately I can't make choices for him but I think it's natural as a family member to kind of think..."
"I don't think I've changed my opinion...ultimately it is a preventable cause of death, I think we should be aiming that no one dies by suicide in this country. Sadly, we've still got so many young people who die by suicide. Under the age of 35, it's the number of cause of death. My work and really my role is to raise awareness of the issue and fight the stigma."
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