Thank you so much to everyone who has donated in memory of Sam and Matt. Helen hugely appreciates it, and hopes to see as many of you as possible at the event on the 30th of September. We are absolutely staggered by the amount of support and funds that have been raised so far. Thank you.

Trigger warning - this story references suicide and mental illness.

Sam and Matt were two brothers, sons to Helen and Lee, born in Rochdale three years apart. Unfortunately both died this year, four months apart, aged 24 and 21, to the heartbreak of family, friends and professionals . Matt had Aspergers and Anxiety Disorder, living independently but supported by committed, caring care workers. He was found dead in the shower. He suffered an arrhythmia and died suddenly. Sam was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia and had been in hospital for over two years. He was already very ill, believing there was a huge conspiracy to kill him, but Matt's death made this worse. He did not believe Matt was dead and found it very stressful that people were lying to him about this; it made his paranoia and therefore his suffering even worse. He went AWOL from hospital and took his own life.

Caring for people with mental health challenges makes you acutely aware of the struggle to get help, the paucity of help available, the denial that is prevalent within services, the lack of quality outcomes. When you consider this against the lack of investment into mental health research, you start to understand why.

We hope supporting this charity will not only increase research but raise the profile and encourage people to work in the sector. Things could have been so different. We hope this will help it to be different for others.

To learn more about MQ's research please visit www.mqmentalhealth.org.