An increasing number of young people in Wales are turning to the Samaritans in the wake of a spate of apparent suicides in the Bridgend area, it has emerged.
As the deaths of two close cousins last week brought the number of suspected suicides involving young people to 16, the charity said branches across Wales had reported a rise in calls from under-25s. It is believed the increase is due to a heightened level of awareness as schools and health officials step up a campaign to make vulnerable teenagers and young adults aware of counselling services following the high-profile cluster of deaths.
The revelation came as police and politicians united to condemn the 'irresponsible' labelling of Bridgend as a 'suicide town' following the deaths of Nathaniel Pritchard, 15, and Kelly Stephenson, 20, last week. Nathaniel died in hospital two days after being found hanging at his home in the Cefn Glas area of Bridgend on Wednesday. His cousin Kelly, who lived 14 doors away in the same street, was found by relatives hanging in the bathroom of a house in Folkestone, Kent, after hearing what Nathaniel had done.
Relatives described them as 'very close'. Kelly, a keen footballer who recently signed for local ladies team Porthcawl Lightnin Strikers, was with her family on holiday.
But police, who are due to release details 'within days' of a review of 13 other apparent suicides in the area, insist that the most recent deaths are not linked. From messages on the networking site Bebo, it appears that Nathaniel had split from his girlfriend just days before.
As local Labour MP Madeleine Moon called for urgent funding for a Bridgend suicide strategy, she denied that the spate of deaths involved some sort of 'internet suicide cult'. She has condemned media coverage of the deaths, telling MPs: 'My Bridgend community has been called death town, suicide town, suicide cult town.'
Meanwhile, Welsh Assembly member Carwyn Jones said that, in analysing recent statistics, people were confusing Bridgend, the former mining town, with the larger Bridgend county.
'We are talking about suicides in a county of more than 130,000 people, not just the town of Bridgend. What we're looking at here, it seems, is a number of unrelated suicides. And it's worth emphasising that Bridgend is not way, way ahead of others,' he said.
Recent research at Swansea University shows that the county had only the sixth highest rate for suicides in Wales, and local coroner Philip Walters has reviewed recent deaths and concluded there is no evidence of the internet playing any direct part.
In the wake of the series of deaths, the mental health charity Mind Cymru has called for at least one member of staff in every school to be trained in suicide awareness.
