Remembering Omar and raising awareness about suicide and young men’s mental health
On May the 25th 2023, our beautiful, big hearted son, Omar Sayeed Iqbal, took his own life, aged 21. With no known history of mental health struggles, he was living joyfully at university. Surrounded by a huge community of loving friends and enveloped in family he adored.
Since his death, we have discovered just how far reaching Omar's impact was, and continues to be. We have learnt about his infectious optimism and enthusiasm for life, his extraordinary gift for empathy and kindness, his keen sense of social justice and his ability to make meaningful human connections across the globe. More people than we could have imagined, have reached out to express their feelings of profound loss. The impact of this loss and the incredible interconnectedness of beauty, love and grief that has followed his death, is The Omar Effect.
This website is a way to capture and preserve the spirit of Omar and his impact. A place for all to share their connection to Omar and hear about him from the countless people whose lives he touched. To learn more about this remarkable young man, who had the soul of an artist, the heart of an empath and a brilliant mind. Here we hope to find comfort and give voice to our collective grief. Although we say he took his life, it is also true that he gave his life, with love, to others. This is The Omar Effect.
Omar might still be with us if only he had reached out for help. We want his legacy to be that other young men like him, can be supported to open up about their hidden anguish, before it is too late. I hope that this is a good place to begin...
Farah x
Nothing prepares you for The Knock. I know I wasn't prepared. I don't know how some people live their lives expecting it. ‘Knock’ is such a malleable, transgressive word. It has followed me throughout my life, mischievous and metronomic. But, despite its familiarity, I wasn't expecting this knock.
A year ago, we got The Knock. Two policemen at our door, insisting on coming in. Knocking the breath out of me, knocking me for six, knocking my world off kilter, knocking me down in a way that still feels impossible to get back up from. Our beautiful, beloved son Omar had taken his own life, two hundred miles away in Liverpool. The Knock changed us all forever. It still echoes every night and waits for me each morning. Every time a shadow passes the door, darkness smudging against light. A knock that is infinite, that has bent time and turned it back on itself.
We may never know why Omar, so gifted, empathetic, and loved, felt this was the only option he had left. Some deaths are linear, with a cause and effect. But suicide has a quantum logic that's impossible to trace. Everyday I create a different story to lean on. To make sense of this narrative without a redemptive arc, only endless prequels.
In order to somehow find hope in The Knock and to live within and alongside its rupture, Omar's mother Farah has created this website to celebrate Omar's unique soul. It's held together with the love we have shared with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and strangers, who were once touched by Omar and forever changed. She is speaking his name and his story, wanting to reach other young people and tell them that there is no knock that you should have to face alone. There is only the knocking of our hearts.
Rashid x
If you or anyone you know is struggling with their mental health or has been affected by Omar’s story, we encourage you to seek help. You can talk to the Samaritans any time, day or night.