Prince William launches sport mental health toolkit

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The Prince of Wales has launched a new nationwide toolkit designed to embed suicide prevention into the culture of sport, timed to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September. Called On Your Side, the resource was created with the Royal Foundation and unveiled at an event at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium, with backing from more than 70 sporting and mental health organisations. William said the aim is to give people at every level of sport, from grassroots clubs to elite teams, straightforward and practical guidance to help them recognise when someone is struggling and support them towards help.

The toolkit itself is an online set of resources rather than a single document, intended to make conversations about suicide as routine within sport as training or performance preparation. William, who has spoken previously about his own difficulties processing emotions, said he had met people whose lives had been irrevocably altered by suicide as well as those who had been saved through timely intervention. He argued that existing support is too often fragmented and inconsistent, particularly outside professional and elite settings, and said his hope was for sporting bodies nationwide to examine the toolkit and ask what more they could do. A short film accompanying the launch features figures including England football captain Harry Kane and Formula 1 driver George Russell talking about the value of having such conversations.

Everton's stadium was chosen deliberately for the launch because of its 'talking bench', a permanent tribute to former Wales captain and manager Gary Speed, who also played for Leeds, Newcastle, Bolton and Sheffield United before taking his own life in November 2011. Alan Shearer, the Premier League's record goalscorer and a close friend of Speed, spoke of the personal significance of the campaign for him, saying nobody needs to be an expert to ask, listen and help point someone towards proper support. The Liverpool event also drew a wider gathering from across British sport, including Olympians Dame Kelly Holmes and Dame Laura Kenny, broadcaster Gabby Logan, boxer Campbell Hatton and footballer Jill Scott, underlining the breadth of figures lending their profile to the initiative.

Suicide remains the leading cause of death among men under 50 in the UK, with the Office for National Statistics recording 6,190 suicides in England and Wales in 2024 and rates roughly three times higher among men than women. Several major bodies used the launch to set out firm commitments: the Football Association, of which William is patron, pledged to embed the toolkit throughout its structure down to grassroots level, while the Premier League, British Cycling and Team GB each committed to applying the resource across their organisations and with their athletes. More than a dozen further sports bodies signed up as 'champions' of the toolkit, which was developed in partnership with the British Standards Institution and the charity Chasing the Stigma, reflecting an attempt to standardise what has previously been a patchwork of approaches to suicide prevention in sport.

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