Finding 'Mike'

I was very lucky yesterday to hear a talk by Johnny Benjamin a mental health campaigner, author and vlogger about his mental health journey.  In January 2014 Johnny launched a social media campaign called Find 'Mike' to search for the stranger who talked him out of taking his own life in 2008. The purpose of the campaign was to raise awareness of suicide and mental illness. It went viral and received global media attention. Within just two weeks Jonny found the stranger he was looking for, Neil Laybourn. The story of the campaign was made into a documentary film that was released in May 2014.
Hearing Johnny speak about his experiences as a young man and the events that took him to the bridge that day moved many of us to tears. The intervention of 'Mike', who we now know is called Neil, saved Johnny's life,'

he said “things can get better”, and that he suggested the pair go for a coffee'.
When Johnny was taking questions at the end of his talk one of my colleagues said how it had struck her that Neil was not a doctor or mental health professional that for her the story was made more amazing because it was about the intervention of an ordinary stranger going about their ordinary day and having an extraordinary impact on someone else' life. That for her the point of the story was about how we all could be 'Mike' in another's life, not necessarily by talking people down off of a bridge but with our every day interactions with those around us. For Johnny one of the most powerful things Neil  gave him was his belief that Johnny could recover, Neil gave Johnny hope when he had none.