THE idea of taking your own life is , in the cold light of an ordinary day, fairly alien to most of us.

How can, we reason, life become so hopeless that we would remove ourselves from it completely, irrespective of the havoc and pain we might leave behind?

While we hope that would never happen to us or those we love, it is a worrying fact that each year around 6,000 men and women do take their own lives. The highest suicide rate is among men aged 45 to 54 but every year a significant number of young people – aged from 10 to 19 - die by their own hand. Currently, rates in this age group are the highest for 14 years.

Although in Bolton the number of around 30 suicides a year is lower than the national average, there is an increase in the most deprived fifth of the population.

Now, the town’s public health services have pledged “no more suicides” in a bold plan to improve the health of the town’s population. While this is a huge challenge, congratulations are in order on such a decisive step in the right direction.

Assistant director of public health, Sue Longden, has insisted that “every suicide should be prevented.” She added: “Our aim is for Bolton to be a vibrant place built on strong cohesive communities, successful businesses and healthy, engaged residents.”

This may be hard for many people to imagine currently, especially if their own lives are crumbling. MIND, the mental health charity, states the reasons for suicide include mental health problems, bullying or discrimination, domestic abuse, bereavement, the end of a relationship, long term physical pain or illness and adjusting to a big change like retirement or redundancy.

According to the NHS website, we can help to make ourselves stronger emotionally sometimes with exercise, eating healthily, avoiding drugs and too much alcohol, staying positive and not becoming socially isolated.

Perhaps we as a community also need to support each other much more and that means making time to talk.

Sometimes, just articulating our problems gets them into perspective early on.

We are also so busy with our lives that we often don’t notice others who may be becoming quieter, less communicative, more isolated. We need to be better family members and better friends. Cutting the suicide rate starts with each one of us and the people we know well.