Kendal mum of Oskar Carrick supports #ForThe100 campaign

Maxine Carrick, who lives near Kendal, has voiced her support for the #ForThe100 campaign which is based around forcing a parliamentary debate on whether a liability should be in place to encourage a better standard of care for students at university.

This would mean a commitment from universities to keeping relevant contacts, like friends or family, informed when necessary.

The campaign is named for the 100 students who are estimated to lose their lives to suicide each year.

Among those was Sheffield Hallam student Oskar Carrick who died in his halls of residence on June 19 2021, three weeks before his 21st birthday.

At his inquest held at the Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield last year, Maxine Carrick said her son’s death was ‘avoidable’ and questioned why the family was not informed of Oskar’s previous suicide attempt which occurred just months before his death.

Oskar consented to his information being shared with his mum and GP, the court heard, but the details of his suicide attempt or concerning behaviour were still not passed on to her.

Maxine called on the university to ‘urgently review’ their internal processes for student welfare and said failure to share information with Oskar’s family ‘directly contributed’ to his death.

Oskar Carrick (Image: Submitted)

READ MORE: Kendal family's heartbreak after son's inquest outcome

Months since the inquest was held, Maxine is supporting a petition calling for an improvement of universities’ duty of care.

She said: “We currently have a petition to ask Government to debate bringing the duty of care at universities in line with all employment, apprenticeships and even prisons.

“It is the only place that I can think of that does not owe (its students) a legal duty of care, however, there is one for staff. Because one does not exist at the moment, the university didn’t have to tell us about Oskar’s decline, even though he had consented for his information to be shared with us and his GP.

“It is too late to change what has happened to Oskar and for us as a family, but if you are thinking of sending your child, grandchild or even if a friend is thinking of going to university please take two minutes today to sign our petition to save lives.”

The petition currently has 57,184 signatures, including 673 from Barrow and 1,304 from Westmorland and Lonsdale.

The campaign has until March 19 for the petition to reach 100,000 signatures - the amount needed to get the petition debated in Parliament.

To sign your name, visit here.

If you’re struggling and need support, call the Samaritans for free on 116 123.