Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas was left in tears on ITV daytime show This Morning today as the show backed a new suicide campaign. Shirly appeared on the show to talk about the death of her brother to suicide 20 years ago.
The show and Shirley were showing their support for the Last Photo Project that is being run by the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). It is an interactive exhibition of 50 faces of people who have lost their life to suicide and it is on London's Southbank.
Gok Wan was speaking live at the exhibition on the show and hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby explained that the show is backing the new campaign. Shirley's brother David is one of the faces in the exhibition after he took his own life back in 2003 at just 44 years old.
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Shirley is an ambassador for CALM and she spoke openly about her brother's death on the show. She described him as a "powerhouse" who "everybody loved."
As the dancer broke down into tears she said: "He was everything to me, we spoke everyday at four o'clock. He was the last person that I would ever think would take their own life."
Shirley also admitted that when she looks back now she realises that warning signs were there but didn't pick up on them at the time. She has said that was because back then the subject of male suicide was never spoken about enough.
She said: "When I look back now, there were warning signs, there were little comments he would make but I'd say 'oh you'll be fine' because you didn't talk about it. It wasn't something you came into the front of and said 'oh I'm feeling like this', he wouldn't even go to the hospital because he didn't want anyone to know."
Later in the interview Phillip opened up about his struggles and explained how talking is important and what helped him he said: “The key is to talk to people… I went through some very very dark times and I leaned heavily on my friends - as Holly knows - so you have to talk to somebody, you can’t do it on your own."
Shirley agreed with the This Morning host and said: "We are in 2022 now, there are many organisations where you can reach out to communicate on a small level. We’re in a moving world with social media, life goes so fast, and if you just take a step back, a breath, a moment, and listen and really try to see your family or friend."
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