Son Tyler's death 'was like being hit by a tsunami'

'I'VE NEVER FELT SUCH INTENSE EMOTIONS'

- By LAUREN COLE-LOMAS

A SURREY mother was left with an indelible grief after her “beautiful” child took his own life, leaving the family unravelling under the weight of unanswered questions.

Months later, joined by friends and family, she set up a suicide prevention charity, the Tyler Abdul Foundation (TyFo), in his name.

Charlene Abdul, from Dorking, said: “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Tyler. Everybody has been so deeply impacted it's unbelievable. I had never felt such intense emotions before.”

The shock and grief of losing her son at 15 left Charlene feeling like she was in an alternative reality.

She said: “It’s like if you were hit by a tsunami, you don’t have time to choose which direction to swim you just have to go with the waves.”

Charlene had regular conversations with her children about mental health, and always told them they had someone to talk to. Tyler would tell her “it’s not that deep mum’, not anticipating the toll daily teenage stress would take.

In the weeks before Tyler’s death on November 4, 2024, he had been to a concert in London with his friends and was revising for his exams, which Charlene said was going well. Tyler also loved to make his own clothes using a sewing machine, at which Charlene said he was “fantastic”