My son Omar Sayeed Iqbal, who has taken his own life aged 21, was a gifted young man studying biosciences at Liverpool University.
Omar was born in Liverpool to me and my husband, Rashid Iqbal. I am a social worker and Rashid works as the chief executive of a youth charity.
Omar was a wide-eyed, curious boy with a vivid intelligence. He spent his early childhood riding his tricycle around Sefton Park, going camping in Snowdonia and playing in the backyard among the flowerpots.
When he was four, we moved to live near my parents in Ladbroke Grove, west London. There he thrived, enfolded in the love of extended family, but most importantly, alongside his younger brother, Talib, and sister, Afra. He also cherished the time he spent with his younger cousins, Yiannis, Eleni and Zain.
Omar drew and painted constantly and learned the violin and piano at Oxford Gardens primary school, later adding the trumpet and guitar to his repertoire. He excelled as a pupil at Burlington Danes academy in west London.
However, aged 15, Omar was diagnosed with a rare neurological movement disorder, paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskenesia. This was characterised by episodes of involuntary muscular spasms. He managed his symptoms with resilience and determination, but the diagnosis shook his world more than he wanted his family to know.
Despite this setback, Omar continued to flourish, with a burgeoning love for music and cinema, and an obsession with Liverpool FC. He moved to St Marylebone Church of England school for the sixth form. During this period he spent hours curating various successful social media accounts, including an Instagram page filled with his insights about music, and football data visualisations on Twitter, which had a large following.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, Omar was either immersed in working on these accounts, or writing reviews of European experimental cinema for the popular film lovers’ app Letterboxd. He was particularly into French New Wave and the work of the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky.
In 2021 Omar returned to his birthplace to study biosciences at Liverpool University. There, he not only loved to play football but to watch Liverpool FC at Anfield stadium. He continued to play the guitar, piano and trumpet, and enjoyed performing for his friends, who described him as an empath who showed them how to live in the moment and appreciate the beauty of life.
While the last two years were apparently among his happiest, the struggle of living with his condition combined with his sensitive nature was possibly overwhelming for Omar, and it seems he was unable to ask for the help that he so freely gave to others.
He is survived by me, Rashid, Talib and Afra, and by his grandmother, Runi.
