‘Building Blocks for a Brighter Future’ Article

Georgia and Tracey from the Mindstep Foundation sat down with the University of Glasgow to discuss their support of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab. You can read the article in full below and the online version here.

The Mindstep Foundation, a suicide prevention charity that funds suicide awareness and research, has been supporting the vital work of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory for four years.

The charity was founded by the Davies family in memory of Max who died by suicide in 2018. Founders of the charity, Max’s mother Tracey and sister Georgia, (pictured left) share how the Foundation began and why they chose to partner with the University of Glasgow in their mission.

“After Max passed away, there was a massive void,” explains Tracey. “We wanted to do something so that some good could come from something that had hurt us so much.

“At first we didn’t know how it was going to look, but people wanted to donate money so we decided to set up the Mindstep Foundation. Initially, it was to support families that were struggling from the effects of suicide, and then it evolved into supporting research too. “When someone takes their own life, you look for answers everywhere,” says Tracey.

“I was looking for information online and Professor Rory O’Connor’s name kept coming up. I decided to reach out to him and he told me about the research he was doing. His level of enthusiasm and commitment made me want to know more and led to us funding research at the SBRL.”

“What’s incredible about the work that Rory and his team do, and the reason that we fund their research, is that having that evidence base is key to developing interventions to help those who are at risk of suicide,” says Georgia. “We need to know why this is happening to know how we can stop it. Their research starts to paint a picture of how we might be able to intervene and help those at risk. It’s a first step and we’re putting that first building block into something that could be vital in preventing suicide.

“We met with the research team in Glasgow in June 2024. Every member of the team is so knowledgeable and passionate about their work as well as being compassionate, considerate and human. As funders, we completely trust in what they’re doing and the benefits of their research.”

“We visited the Clarice Pears Building while were in Glasgow and there is a space that has been dedicated to Max and to Mindstep,” says Tracey. “Seeing Max’s legacy living on at the University of Glasgow has been very special. It has helped us to look towards a brighter future because we are helping in some way, and that has been invaluable to us as a family.”

“When I think of Max, I think of him as a star who shone really brightly for a short time. He was just full of life” says Georgia. “You want to do something positive after something so awful and this could help another family avoid the loss that we have experienced.”

Professor Rory O’Connor is the Chair in Health Psychology  and leads the groundbreaking research of the SBRL at Glasgow.

“Suicide can affect anyone, he says. “At the SBRL, we are working to understand why people become suicidal and to find ways of helping people who are suicidal. A lot of our work focuses on developing new interventions, which hopefully will interrupt the transition from suicidal thoughts to suicidal attempts.

Mental health and suicide prevention research is chronically underfunded. In recent years there has been an increase in funding but there are still many gaps. Donations like those provided to us by the Mindstep Foundation have been invaluable in helping us tackle the complex questions around suicide and suicide prevention. Gifts support the fundamental work of trying to understand some of the physiological mechanisms associated with suicide risk and help to harness funding from other sources to progress our research.

Donations to the University of Glasgow make a difference. Not only do gifts support the research on the ground but, in the context of the SBRL, they have the opportunity and the potential to save lives.”