Hope for Lanark bridge messages to spread across Scotland
Dad-of-three Alastair Wilson left 20 cards on the Cartland Bridge after he considered ending his life there in July
Last updated 15th Aug 2018
It's hoped messages of love and support left at a bridge in Lanark by a local man can be replicated at other suicide spots across Scotland.
Dad-of-three Alastair Wilson was inspired to leave 20 cards - all with the phone number for mental health helpline Breathing Space attached - on the Cartland Bridge after he considered taking his own life there earlier this summer.
He's hoping the messages can help other people in similar situations - and potentially go on to save lives across the country.
He told Clyde News: "I've worked with the charity Brothers In Arms and I've sent them the templates that I made in the hope that people can use this as a downloadable resource to put in areas where they think it's needed.
"There are hotspots. If other people can do the same thing with the cards, and if we could do something nationally to stop this - or at least lower this and give someone a chance - then great.
"I've lost too many good people in my lifetime already, and I've almost lost myself. It's something I'm never going to stop fighting for."
Alastair, who was diagnosed with depression when he was a teenager, explained his situation prior to putting the cards up on the Cartland Bridge a few weeks ago.
He said: "I've been battling with depression on-and-off ever since I was 17. There was an event in my twenties when I tried to take my own life, and from there it's been a case of building myself back up mentally and physically.
"Over the past couple years I've been having a bit of a relapse, and that led me to where I was on the bridge four weeks ago.
"I was contemplating why I shouldn't throw myself off - and that's a really bad place to be. I was trying to convince myself that this wasn't the way to do it, and I did succeed. But what I found out later was that after I left the bridge that evening, another woman from another town had come to the very same spot and had ended her life.
"What could have been there to stop either of us in the position we were in? What if I had stayed longer? It left me with a lot of guilt and it was a feeling that I knew I needed to do something about.
"The things on the cards are things I would want to hear. When I get exceedingly down, you get tunnel vision and you lose sight of all the good things in your life."