Ben West
Mental Health Campaigner
Turning pain into purpose.
Hi, I'm Ben. Today I'm one of the most engaged and influential mental health campaigners in the world.
But the reason for my work, and my inspiration every day, is my wonderful little brother Sam.
In January 2018 Sam very unexpectedly took his own life and died at the age of only 15 years old.
Through complete shock and devastation, I realised that I wanted to stop what happened to Sam from happening to anyone else ever again.
Eight years on, my work has now reached over 70 million people in 160 countries, changed national government policy and directly supported tens of thousands of people considering suicide.
A brother's promise.
Of the two of us, Sam was the first to be a mental health campaigner. While he was going through depression, he began putting posters up around school in an attempt to make others feel seen and less alone.
I have no doubt that had Sam survived, he would be doing this work himself. He cared deeply about others, had a strong sense of social justice and spent so much of his shortened life making others happy.
Unfortunately, you've got me instead. I picked up the baton that he left behind, and will spend the rest of my life working to make the changes that Sam believed in and so desperately needed himself.
I will make sure that what started as a devastating and tragic story, ends as a story of change and hope. Sam lives on in the lives that my work touches, some of whom are still here because of it. That is my why. It's the reason behind everything I do.
MY WORK
Reasons to Stay
Founded January 2026
Reasons to Stay is a suicide prevention website where anyone in the world can write a letter to someone thinking about suicide, giving them warmth, hope and connection. Anonymous letters are delivered at random when you visit the site and are all moderated by clinical volunteers.
The idea behind RTS came from identifying a gap where people in crisis are reluctant to take the step to reach out to a helpline or other support. Reasons to Stay provides an interruption to suicide thinking which requires the least engagement from the person in need. This project aims to demonstrate that no matter what, you are never alone. Someone has written a letter to you because they care.
In the first month after launch, over one million letters had been delivered with 81% of visitors reporting feeling better after reading one.
2m+
LETTERS DELIVERED TO SITE VISITORS
70m+
CONTENT VIEWS ACROSS SOCIAL MEDIA
81%
OF VISITORS SAID THEY FELT BETTER
MY WORK
For Every Teacher
Founded September 2018
When Sam died I spent time talking to his and my teachers. It became clear from speaking to them that the training that teachers receive on mental health is limited and inconsistent. Many teachers told me that they come across poor mental health all the time "but don't want to say the wrong thing".
Based on those conversations, I thought it was wrong that teachers didn't get a standard education in mental health and child development as part of their teacher training. It seems unfair on teachers, who are expected to deal with increasing prevalence of probable mental health conditions amongst children, and they deserve to know what to do or say if they are concerned.
I started a petition in 2018 calling for the government to make mental health training a statutory requirement of teacher training.
I worked with Downing Street, the Department for Education, Schools, Teachers, Experts and Children and from September 2025, the Initial Teacher Training framework included mental health for the first time ever. This is a positive step towards improving the quality of teaching and availability of support within schools.
315k
PETITION SIGNATURES