The statistics are stark: every two hours a man somewhere in the UK makes the decision to take their own life. It works out as 84 men dying as a result of suicide every week. If you’re a British man under the age of 45, suicide is, statistically speaking, your most likely form of death.

There’s a marked gender split to the issue – compared to women, men are more than three times more likely to kill themselves (15.5 deaths per 1,000 for men, 4.9 deaths per 1,000 for women).

There are possible reasons behind this disparity that feel deeply woven into the way our culture raises boys and girls. According to Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)’s 2016 Masculinity Audit, only 55% of men who’ve experienced depression will tell anyone about it, compared with 67% of women.

These are the statistics that CALM has to grapple with. CALM is a charitable organisation dedicated to the prevention of male suicide, and the stigma that tends to attach itself to families whose loved-ones have tragically taken their own life.

Project 84 was launched by CALM and collaborators adam&eveDDB in March 2018. The initiative centred around a public art installation. Over a week in March, 84 sculpted statues were installed, shoulder to shoulder, peering over the edge of the roof of broadcast channel ITV’s headquarters on London’s Southbank.

Each statue represented one of the men who make the decision to take their own lives every week in the UK. Crucially, each of the male figures represented a real life lost, and was created by that person’s loved ones.

The premise of the statutes was to help passers-by reflect on the impact that suicide has on those left behind, stressing the devastation that this kind of death, and the public stigmas that surround it, can leave in its wake – particularly for families. 

“It’s unacceptable that so many men are dying from suicide on a daily basis, yet so few people are talking about it,” CALM stated on the launch of the initiative.

After engaging agency adam&eve/DDB, CALM commissioned American artist Mark Jenkins and his collaborator Sandra Fernandez to create Project 84. Jenkins worked with friends and relatives of 84 men who were lost to suicide. Each helped with the creation of the sculptures and agreed to give their testimonies and memories of the deceased to the project.

Mark Jenkins said of the project: “Project 84 has been an incredibly emotional experience for me and all the family and friends of the 84 men who took their own lives. But it has also been an incredibly positive one. Rather than mourning their loss, together we’ve built something based on the hope that out of tragedy we can help drive change.”

ITV’s popular television programme This Morning backed Project 84 by unveiling the sculptures live on air, whilst talking to family members involved in the campaign.

Twelve of the figures were installed on the roof of This Morning’s studio building. The remaining 72 were visible from the roof of the ITV Studios Tower.

“Achieving our goal of male suicide prevention requires everybody to take a stand. CALM has been campaigning and providing support services for 11 years,” said Simon Gunning, chief executive of CALM. “But try as we might, it isn’t enough to tackle the enormous problem of male suicide. So with Project 84, we wanted to make the scale of the situation very clear to everyone that sees the sculptures.”

Impressively, the statues were joined by testimonies and photographic portraits of family members remembering the loved ones they lost to suicide. There’s a beauty in the honesty of their words, even if the intensity of the sense of loss, and the confusion surrounding it, is all too apparent.

A case example is Shane O’Neill, 28, who was found in the woods surrounding Aberdeen. He had taken his life after the breakdown of a long-term relationship and difficulties in his work. Shane’s Sister, Aisling tells Project 84: “We miss Shane every single day. His death caused so much confusion, despair and soul-searching. At first, I was torn between feeling great sorrow for my brother, knowing how much he must have suffered, but also anger and frustration at the situation he had left our family in. The most jarring thing of all were the unanswered questions. My head was like a pinball machine; questions bounced around inside it for years afterwards, refusing to leave. Slowly, I’ve felt them settle and somehow, now, I feel more okay with not having all the answers.”

Gunning points out that that, on average, each suicide in the UK is estimated to cost £1.67 million. What’s more, those bereaved and affected by every suicide – which averages out at 135 people, from partners to family to friends – are at a 65% higher risk of attempting suicide themselves.

“If this was anything else, an issue with less stigma, we have no doubt that the government would take steps towards better prevention,” Gunning says. “As a society we have to move past embarrassment and awkwardness, we have to face this awful issue, discuss it and actively work to stop it.”

Matthew Smith, leader of the Project 84 petition, and whom lost his brother Dan to suicide 13 years ago, said: “Dan was taken by something silent, something none of his friends or family saw coming. Dan was just one of the 84 men who take their own lives every single week in the UK. The numbers still shock me and yet there’s no minister in the UK government who is officially responsible for suicide prevention and bereavement support.”

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