Author opens up about dealing with dad’s suicide.

‘My dad spent his whole life helping people but he didn’t have the outlet he needed’

Kalwinder Singh was 26 years old when his dad Mohinder took his own life.

The news came just months after Mohinder’s brother and Kal’s uncle died by suicide after battling depression for years.

Struggling with the heartbreaking news, Kal thought he would never be happy again.

But, 14 years on, he is sharing the story of his grief to help others through similar trauma and give people hope.

The now 40-year-old has written a two-part book about his dad’s life, history and his own grieving process.

“When it happened I just couldn’t get my head around it,” Kal said.

“I thought I would never be happy again but now after all this time I have hindsight and I have learned a lot.”

He hopes that by sharing his story, he will help others.

Leicester Mercury

24 SEP 2019

The first ten Derby stars to have their names etched into the stars in the city were:

Alice Wheeldon Derby’s most famous suffragist and a fervent anti-First World War campaigner

Bess of Hardwick, England’s richest Elizabethan woman after Queen Elizabeth I used her considerable wealth to help Derby poor and needy

Brian Clough and Peter Taylor the top management duo that took Derby football from obscurity to national fame

Sir John Hurt in recognition of his sterling contribution to the arts as an accomplished actor

Joseph Wright globally recognised English landscape and portrait painter and the first to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution

Louis Martin, the Jamaican-born sportsman who became Britain’s greatest-ever Olympic weightlifter

Philip Noel-Baker, a former MP for Derby, credited with saving the 1948 Olympic Games for Britain

Charles Rolls the pioneer aviator and Henry Royce the engineer and designer who formed Rolls-Royce which sets the global standard for excellence in automotive and aviation technology

The newest additions to the Made in Derby Walk of Fame are:

Adam Peaty, Olympic champion breaststroke swimmer who won the Gold medal at the Olympic Games at Rio in 2016, which earned him the Freedom of the City of Derby later that year

Marion Adnams, English painter, printmaker and draughtswoman, best known for her surrealist paintings

Bird Brothers – Frank, Thomas and Reginald, Derby born bakers, founders of the Bird’s Bakery chain

Karam Singh, Solo world champion break dancer from Normanton

Jack O’Connell, British TV and film actor well known for his roles in Skins and Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut Unbroken

Lara Croft, Archaeologist video game and film heroine created in Derby

Liam Sharp, Marvel and DC comic book artist, famous for drawing Spiderman and Wonder Women comics

John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, who prepared of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus

Steve Bloomer, Derby County football legend who signed to the club as a professional footballer in April 1892

Florence Nightingale, heroine of the Crimean War and the major founder of the modern profession of nursing

On November 2nd I’ll be running a workshop at the 2019 Heera Foundation Conference:

Protecting Minds

‘Surviving bereavement by suicide’

I will be sharing my experiences in relation to the loss of my father by suicide and how I managed to cope with my grief.

https://www.theheerafoundation.co.uk/

On 1 September 2018, we published The Colour of Madness, an anthology exploring Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) mental health in the UK. The book featured the art, poetry, stories, and essays of over fifty contributors*.

Far from being a one-off publication, The Colour of Madness has taken on a life of its own. We have given talks, spoken on panels, and run workshops at universities, festivals, marketing agencies, council events, and more. Edinburgh University students took our stories from the page to the stage, and our contributors have been making waves across the country. Our book is now in the hands of so many people we admire, from Jackie Kay, to Sharmaine Lovegrove, to Reni Eddo-Lodge. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve all been up to!