A friend put me onto Ricky Gervais’ brilliant series, ‘After Life’. Funny but rather depressing. If you are not familiar, he plays a bloke who has lost the love of his life and just wants it all to end it all and has become the world’s rudest man. There are times you just go, ‘well, I know how he feels’.

But I suspect that unless you are someone who genuinely suffers from depression, then you don’t. I've been fortunate in that, despite being told far too many times by ‘mates’ that I really have a lot to be depressed about, I have only ever suffered very brief bouts. If you have not, then you are seriously fortunate. It is an insidious, horrendous thing. While I have been fortunate, I have seen first hand – as I am sure many of us have – just how awful it can be. A close friend suffered for many years and it simply destroys lives. Incredibly frustrating in that nothing you can do seems to help. I suspect that there are very few of us who have not been affected by the loss of friends or family, induced by depression. A very good mate of mine, would have done anything for his kids (and did), lost a son last week. Gutting beyond comprehension. No warning.

I often think of a couple of friends now gone. And we often talk about them with other friends. None of us had a clue it was likely. Is that our fault? Don’t know. One girl – this is from many years ago – had the world at her feet. Loved by everybody, not a bad word ever spoken about her, brilliant, incredibly…