Angela Samata

Angela recently completed her tenure as Chair of the Survivors of the Bereaved by Suicide, a nationwide charity offering a unique and distinct free service with online, face to face and telephone support to bereaved adults across the UK. Under her Chairmanship and together with a 10-strong Board and 150 volunteers, the number of support groups doubled, with over 60 free support groups currently throughout the UK, offering support to over 7,000 people bereaved by suicide each year. Angela led the Liverpool support group for 7 years and currently sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group looking at Suicide Prevention in England and Wales. Angela recently presented the BBC1 BAFTA nominated and winner of the Mind Media Award for Best Factual TV documentary, ‘Life After Suicide’. The film encouraged discussion and exploration of mental health issues, challenging the stigma of suicide. Describing her own experience and that of her children after her partner took his own life 12 years ago, Angela travelled the length and breadth of the UK talking to others who had experienced the same loss. The documentary was reshown as part of the BBC’s Mental Health Season #InTheMind and was watched world-wide by over 3.5 million viewers, with over 95,000 views to date on YouTube. Her charity work, together with the making of the documentary were recently recognised as Angela was named as the Merseyside Woman of the Year 2015. As a freelance arts professional for over a decade, Angela continues to work with individual artists and arts organisations, while also speaking publically about mental health issues. https://angelasamata.co.uk