{"id":617011,"date":"2026-09-07T07:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617011\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T07:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T07:40:09","slug":"how-hollyoaks-saved-the-life-of-manchester-mental-health-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617011\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hollyoaks saved the life of Manchester mental health activist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A mental health campaigner said they were seconds away from taking their own life before being saved by a plotline in a soap opera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">John Junior, 37, from Wythenshawe, in Greater Manchester, had been suffering with depression since the age of 14. But after the sudden death of their father in 2018, the then-IT worker said they hit rock bottom. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">During lockdown in 2020, John was contemplating taking their own life when a Hollyoaks storyline stopped them in their tracks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I seconds away from ending my life,&#8221; John recalled. &#8220;I had Hollyoaks on in the background and I turned round to watch the scene. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There was a moment when a character was told her partner had taken his own life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Something happened to me and it gave me enough time to think beyond what I was about to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t be here today if it wasn&#8217;t for Hollyoaks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day 2026, on 10 September, John said now they want to share their experience to encourage others to speak out. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Warning: This article contains references to and details of self-harm, suicide, and suicidal ideations. The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/actionline\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> BBC Action Line<\/a> has details of a range of advice and support for anyone affected by the issues raised<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mental health campaigner said they were seconds away from taking their own life before being saved by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-617011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}