Tw: sucide and drugs/alcohol
Jay was 17, I met her at college, full of ambition and life. She opened my eyes to a whole new world (if you went to a nightclub when it opened the bouncers weren't there yet). I tried to get her through college. My proudest moment was when she went to an exam, because of me and my persistence. We were the only 2 people that could answer what an advocate was, because of our experience in "the system".
She wanted to be a DJ, or a social worker, because she could do better than the social workers who had worked with her. Jay had a difficult life. She lived in the foyer, a local shelter for young people. She had problems with drugs and alcohol.
She had an overdose that year, it was when I walked away from her life. I was the only sober person that night who was able to get an ambulance and save her. She wanted me to lie, tell everyone her drink had been spiked. I couldn't do that, one of the hardest decisions I made. I had hoped it would shake her into going straight, but it didn't.
The day I got my a level results was the day I found out she had gone.
Now, there is hope, because of her. Now, there are people who patrol beachy head to show people they care. They started a year after she went. They have reduced suicide there significantly. Just by showing people that someone cares.
Please, today, tell someone you care about them. Tell them before they're gone they are loved and they'll be missed if they go. Don't wait til it's too late. Reach out now.
This is an article written about what happened.
http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/local/tragedy-of-a-lonely-teenager-who-nobody-cared-about-1-1436413
TRAGEDY OF A LONELY TEENAGER WHO NOBODY CARED ABOUT
Published on the 12 February 2004 12:39
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HORRIFIED witnesses saw a 17-year-old girl throw herself off Beachy Head after telling them that 'nobody cared'.
Jazamin Richardson, known as Jay, was spotted sitting on the edge of the 500ft drop and swigging out of a Coke bottle.
Student Kate Marshall, one of a group of friends who were having a picnic at the beauty spot on August 3, tried to talk Jay out of jumping and asked her friends to call the police.
But Jay told the officers, who raced to the scene, that she was going to have one last drag of her cigarette and then jump.
'I became aware of somebody sitting on the edge,' Miss Marshall told the Eastbourne inquest.
'She was sitting and then standing up then sitting very close to the edge of the cliff.
'She seemed to be drunk. She looked like she was going to jump. We called our friends and asked them to call the police.'
Miss Marshall then approached Jay, who lived at the Eastbourne Foyer before being admitted to hospital, and talked to her.
'I did not ask her why, I asked her where she was from. She said she had escaped from the hospital in Eastbourne the night before.
'She reached into her jacket and got some cigarettes.
'I asked if I could have one and I asked her to come and smoke one with us.
'She said no, but she did throw the cigarettes back to me.
'I was turning round to get a light from a passerby and Craig came up with the police.
'She kept saying she wanted to jump. We kept saying - please don't do it. She was saying that nobody cared.'
Jay then said she was going to take one last drag of her cigarette and then jump.
PC Sasha Coote, who had just arrived at the scene, begged the teenager not to jump, but she turned to face the drop and then stepped off.
PC Coote's colleague PC Derrick Wood told the inquest that when he arrived at the cliff, Miss Marshall was lying down on the edge talking to Jay.
'Jay was standing right on the edge. I asked people to move away.
'I stepped away to use my radio, which took a little bit of time.
'Jay's speech was slurred and she was extremely distressed.
'She was willing to talk to PC Coote but not willing to move away from the edge.
'She said she was going to jump, no matter what she said. She seemed really concerned that we get people away from her.
'She then turned so she faced the sea, lifted her arms up and stepped off.'
Coroner Alan Craze recorded a verdict of suicide and added, 'In this case it was observed by a large number of people, none of which were in any doubt.'
Friends had thought Jay had turned her life around at the Eastbourne Foyer, in St Leonards Road.
She had plans to become a DJ and was taking her GCSEs at Park College. The Herald interviewed Jay a year ago, when she had been living at the Foyer for six months after family problems caused her to leave home.
She had completed a Prince's Trust scheme, joined Park College and was full of plans for the future.
Staff and residents at the Foyer were deeply distressed to hear of Jay's death.
A spokesperson said at the time, 'Until recently, Jay had lived at the Eastbourne Foyer and during that time had been a proactive member of the Foyer community.
'In the early part of the year Jay had been involved in a photography project run by the Foyer and a poster featuring Jay was chosen as the poster image for a national conference preventing youth homelessness held in May.
'Jay will be sadly missed by the residents and staff that she had befriended during her time at the Foyer.'
