About me:
Born in London and raised in Leeds, with four formative years spent in India, I graduated from Manchester University as a doctor in 1984. After five years working and teaching in hospital medicine, I chose a career in general practice, drawn by the principles of whole‑person care.
For 22 years, I worked as a GP partner in Peterborough, supporting people from all walks of life. My role extended beyond the surgery to include work in bail hostels, women’s refuges, drug rehabilitation services, and homeless centres. When Peterborough became an Asylum Dispersal Centre in 2000, I developed dedicated medical services for asylum seekers. In 2012, I was appointed Clinical Commissioning Lead for Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, for North Cambridgeshire.
I was very privileged to be the Chair of the Peterborough Suicide Prevention Implementation Group, where I was able to make major improvements to the city. Working collaboratively with the coroner, police, local authorities, and businesses, life saving safety barriers were installed into Peterborough City Centre multi-storey car parks and commissioned voluntary‑sector initiatives to raise community awareness. This partnership received a national award for safer communities through the STOP Suicide campaign.
After relocating to Derbyshire in 2014, I continued my GP and mental health leadership work and joined the Derbyshire Suicide Prevention Partnership Forum. I was clinical lead for a small team of passionate GPs who up-skilled to train primary care teams about suicide. Leading peer‑to‑peer training for whole practice teams across the county significantly increased confidence in recognising warning signs and offering compassionate, practical support. In 2018, this work was recognised as a finalist in the Health Service Journal Awards for Innovation in Primary Care.
Alongside this, I have been privileged to work as a Storm Skills Training Consultant, supporting their social enterprise. The consultation skills I have learned through Storm Skills Training have been invaluable in my clinical and teaching roles. The organisation is dedicated to promoting community wellbeing. Thousands of primary care staff across Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, and beyond have now received suicide prevention training. My hope is that all NHS staff in the UK will one day routinely receive this vital education.
Before reading the blog:
This blog mentions topics related to self-harm and suicide which may potentially lead to distress. Before you read it, please check in with yourself. How are you feeling today? If you were negatively impacted or affected, who would you contact for support? Support is available from Samaritans, for free, 24/7. Phone 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.uk.
Editor’s note:
At Storm Skills Training, we welcome diverse expert perspectives that prompt reflection and support compassionate, evidence informed suicide prevention. Guest blogs represent the views of the authors and are shared to encourage learning, discussion, and ongoing improvement in practice.
What is the Baton of Hope?
The Baton of Hope is the UK’s largest suicide prevention initiative, created to challenge stigma, encourage open conversation, and promote hope. It was founded by bereaved fathers Mike McCarthy and Steve Phillip, following the heartbreaking deaths of their sons, Ross and Jordan, alongside suicide‑prevention advocates Paul Vittles and Ian McClure. Learn more at: https://batonofhopeuk.org/.
The Baton of Hope Derby & Derbyshire Tour took place on 13 September 2025. Over 7,000 people participated across seven events, supported by one hundred baton bearers and countless volunteers.
My Commitment to Suicide Prevention
When I was ten years old, I remember the time I lost a dear uncle to suicide. Our family was grief stricken. We talked about it openly. I recall how senseless it seemed. A proud strong yet gentle man. If only he had reached out, but as is so often the case he felt unable to share his pain.
These experiences have shaped my understanding of suicide and its far-reaching ripple effects, not only on families and communities, but also on those in caring professions. The lesser-known but important truth is that doctors, nurses, counsellors, and other health and social care professionals often experience shock, anger, grief, and even a loss of confidence when a patient dies by suicide. These feelings are hard to share, compounded by the anxiety of investigations and coroners’ inquests.
My personal and professional experiences motivated me to join the Baton of Hope, an initiative that reflects my core values and commitment to suicide prevention.
Carrying the Baton
On Saturday 13 September 2025, I had the privilege of carrying the Baton of Hope at Florence Nightingale Community Hospital in Derby. It was a deeply moving experience. Receiving the baton from someone bereaved by suicide, and later passing it to a young man who had experienced suicidal thoughts and now supports others, powerfully captured the spirit of the Baton of Hope: connection born of shared experience, and hope rooted in compassion. From there, the tour continued across Derby, growing into a large collective procession that culminated in a moving finale at Cathedral Green.
Dr Sohrab Panday pictured above carrying the Baton of Hope supported by fellow suicide prevention champions
Hope, Resilience, and Kindness
When someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts, the pain can feel overwhelming and unending. Yet even the darkest moments are rarely permanent. Circumstances and feelings can — and often do — change over time.
I encourage people to hold on during those hardest moments, because doing so creates space for pain to ease and for new understanding, connection, and purpose to emerge. Hope often returns gradually, through being listened to without judgement and through simple acts of human kindness.
Just as music can unlock joyful memories for people living with dementia, compassion can rekindle hope in those experiencing profound emotional distress. These moments of connection remind us that better times are possible.
Primary Care and Suicide Prevention
After the suicide of a patient early in my career, I began to question why neither I nor my colleagues had received suicide prevention training, and why there was no pastoral support for GPs following such losses. I later recognised this as a form of moral injury — the distress of working within systems that fail to equip caring professionals to keep people safe.
Each year, around 110 people die by suicide in Derby and Derbyshire. Every death affects approximately 135 others, many of whom require specialist bereavement support.
I relocated to beautiful Derbyshire in 2014, and pursued a portfolio career as a GP, mental health leadership, commissioner, and mental health lead regional and national roles.
My passion was ignited by the work of the Derbyshire suicide prevention partnership forum, where James Creaghan and Keith Waters, were doing incredible work in public health and the mental health NHS Trust respectively.
Postvention: Supporting Practices and the Bereaved
There is a very important specific area of suicide prevention, which is postvention support for those bereaved by suicide.
Complex grief and suicide risk can result. The impact can be profound, even on staff who lose a patient, as I myself have experienced. This motivated me to write the Postvention Support Pack for Primary Care.
For over a decade, I have also focused on postvention — supporting GP practices, staff, and families after a suicide.
During the pandemic, I developed the Suicide Postvention Support Pack for General Practice in Derbyshire, offering practical guidance to help practices:
- Support grieving staff and protect wellbeing
- Communicate compassionately with bereaved families
- Navigate reporting, reflection, and safe prescribing review
- Learn safely and strengthen future care
Suicide Postvention Support Pack for General Practice (National Template)
Following its success in Derbyshire, a national template is now available, helping practices across the UK provide compassionate and practical support after a patient dies by suicide: Suicide Postvention Support Pack for General Practice National Template.
A Shared Commitment
Suicide prevention is a shared responsibility. It begins with each of us — in how we listen, how we respond, and how we care for one another, including those who care for others for a living.
My aspiration is that every NHS worker feels prepared, supported, and confident to talk about suicide, build hope, promote safety, and support those who are bereaved. Primary care, in particular, must be supported to maintain a culture of compassion and connection, where suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility.
The message of the Baton of Hope resonates deeply with me: build hope so people choose life. By working together — across services, professions, and communities — we can create systems that are not only clinically effective, but humane, compassionate, and truly life‑saving.
Endorsements
Press release
I have just finished working with NHS England to co-author a Top Tips for GPs - helping patients to stay safe from suicide (Staying safe from suicide: Best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management). This builds on the work of NHS England and Philip Pirie - another bereaved father to suicide - whereby risk stratification has been found to be ineffective, and so a new era of individual risk mitigation-informed safety plans has dawned. This is accessible via NHS Futures for those with an NHS email account or email spanday@nhs.net.
And to come in 2026...
I am really looking forward to addressing the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care in Whitehall to make the case for safe standards.
I hope to see suicide prevention and postvention for patients and staff alike become embedded in each of us and in our teams.
Thank you for the privilege of sharing my journey.
