A MAN who credits a housing association’s mental health support team with preventing him from committing suicide is now raising awareness of the need to ask for help.

Last year Ryan Saunders, from Northallerton, was preparing to overdose on tablets after the stress of a delayed house move triggered mental health problems he has struggled with for most of his life.

The 35-year-old believes he would have gone ahead with his suicide had it not been for an email read by Broadacres housing officer Laura Wright.

Ms Wright had been liaising with Mr Saunders over a move into a new home which had been delayed due to asbestos and she recognised a cry from help in an email Mr Saunders had sent to her on the day he intended to take his own life.

He said: “Luckily, I had sent Laura an email earlier in the day and there was something in the language I used that didn’t seem right to her, so she immediately contacted me and put me in touch with the Broadacres mental health team.”

Mr Saunders spoke to support worker Simon Grundy and says one of the first words he said to him was “help”.

Within minutes Mr Grundy contacted the mental health crisis team and Mr Saunders was admitted to hospital that same day.

He then received the support he needed.

Speaking months later about the events which led to him almost taking his own life, he is full of praise for those who helped to bring him back from the brink.

He said: “If Laura hadn’t recognised the stress in my email and had Simon not then answered my call, I don’t think I would be here to share my story.”

Since he started receiving the support he needed, Mr Saunders has now moved into his Broadacres home in Northallerton with his partner and their children.

He has taken up running, which he looks on as therapy, and in September he will run in the Great North Run to raise funds and awareness for the mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

He has also become a host at The Living Rooms in Northallerton which helps people in mental distress.

Mr Saunders said it was important to seek help when needed, adding: “You may think you are, but you are not alone, so just talk."