BBC Radio 4 2016-09-12

Last week around 1.5 million Muslims travelled to Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage. This is a demanding trip but which the faithful see as a journey of inspiration and aspiration. And today is Eid, the highlight of the hajj, a day of family and feasting but perhaps most of all a day of gratitude when pilgrims pray that God has accepted their hajj.

People go on hajj for many reasons. They go in search for a spiritual experience, to pray on behalf of elderly or deceased parents, and increasingly to pray for health. Many years ago, a former colleague told me that he had decided to go on hajj to pray for his son ' he suffers from mental illness a form of depression and says he doesn’t want to live any more. I don’t understand it, he has friends, he’s doing well at school, we’ve tried everything. Maybe God will hear my prayers.’ Listening to him, I could only offer words of comfort and wished him well. Months later I found that he had given up his work to spend more time with his son – his son was his life and his well-being meant everything.

Saturday marked the annual World Suicide Prevention day and comments on social media stressed the importance of reaching out to those suffering clinical depression; this is a real illness and must be treated as such. Today the World Health Organization estimates over 800,000 people die by suicide each year – that’s one person every 40 seconds. Dig deeper and research shows that depression may be the greatest disease burden of the 21st century. In the UK alone, men between 20 and 49 are more likely to die from suicide than cancer, road accidents or heart disease. Yet this still remains a taboo issue, frequently criticised for attracting neither the right levels of empathy or funding. Often our interest spikes only when a celebrity takes their own life, leaving many of us wondering they had everything so why? We forget that no amount of fame and fortune can make up for inner pain or loneliness.

Depression and its most dramatic end, suicide, doesn’t discriminate - it can affect all of us. This isn’t a moral issue it a public health issue, it’s not why someone has lost hope but how we can give them hope. It’s not because the person no longer cares, it’s how we can show that we care. Nothing in life matters as much as feeling that we are loved. Not everyone can open up about how they feel but all of us can reach out to someone in some way. Maybe this is why the Qur’an urges `to speak a kind word is better than charity.’ The right medication and therapy is key to mental health but let’s remember that human kindness and compassion can also make a huge difference.