A WEE COUNTY man has described the past year as “a blur” as he and his family try to carry on without their beloved brother and son.

Conor Brown was found dead on March 7, last year and 12 months on his twin brother Declan admits the pain is still raw.

Though still trying to come to terms with the loss, he feels an obligation to try and prevent the same tragedy from striking another family.

This week, the Advertiser launches a column for people in the community to express their thoughts about mental health in the hope that other young men will feel more free to open up themselves or seek help, if they need it.

And Declan, who took the courageous step of penning the first article, hopes to see more people affected sharing their views.

In his poignant piece, he says: “The majority of suicides are male...and that’s because as a society we have forced men to be ‘men’. That men don’t have any need to be sad, to feel low, because that makes you less of a man. So instead they keep up the front; they keep on being that man society wants them to be...to be like Conor was.

“We only push those feelings further down inside and let them get darker and darker until there is no other escape. How sad is that? It needs to change.

“We need to judge less and support more. Who knows? Maybe if those struggling can see us fighting for them, it may spur them to want to fight for themselves.

“We need to show anyone suffering in silence that we are here...We’ve got you; you’re not alone.”

The feature has been backed by national charity See Me and forms part of the Advertiser’s long-running commitment to bring mental health issues to light.

For Declan, the harrowing experience of his brother’s death helped him to understand the gravity of mental health issues in society.

He and his family marked the one-year anniversary last week, but he admits the whole thing still feels unreal.

He said: “This week we haven’t really done much – just chilled. We took the day [of his anniversary] off but didn’t want to take the full week off, we would end up just sitting thinking about it even more.

“It’s just getting to that one year mark, but it’s been a crazy year and just felt like a blur because we have done that many things for him and so many events. It’s not really any better now though, you just keep ticking off milestones like the first birthday without him and stuff like that. It does still feel like it never really happened.”

However, rather than staying silent, Declan said he and his family talk about it every single day as they remember the good times with the much loved Conor.

He continued: “We talk about him all the time, every day. My nana passed away eight weeks later and then our dog died as well, so we certainly have lots to talk about.”

It has also mended relationships and brought people closer together – a silver lining to the cloud for the family.

“I would say I am closer to my family and friends now,” Declan added. “We were just saying that recently actually, that it has brought everyone closer together.

“There’s people who used to be enemies and now we’re friends. Life is too short for all the fighting, you don’t know what is going to happen.”

In the wake of Conor’s tragic death, a fundraising page was set up to raise money for the family with the hope of £3,000 being donated. Instead, £13,000 was raised which covered everything.

Declan then took that spirit and done the same when his best mate’s brother, Philip Horne, sadly passed away late last year.

He said: “It was really hard and the way it happened was terrible. I noticed how much the fund page helped us so I wanted to do the same for that family.”

Earlier this year, with the anniversary of Conor’s death approaching, Declan decided to raise one final glass to his brother in the form of a memorial concert at Alloa Town Hall on March 30.

Appearing will be the Complete Stone Roses; Kazabian – the UK’s only Kasabian tribute band; a SIA tribute artist Vicky Louise, with Keiran as Ed Sheeran, and Sergeant frontman Nick Mercer Jr.

Tickets are priced at £20 and are available from the Clackmannanshire leisure line on 01259 213131 or from the Speirs Centre.