I will never get over the death of my brother & I'm OK with that... I don't ever want to feel fine that he is dead

Dr Alex George on coping with loss

- HANNAH BRITT

An A&E doctor soaking up the sun at the Love Island villa would seem like a fish out of water. But then, Dr Alex George is not your normal medic.

For Alex, finishing fifth in the 2018 series of the ITV dating show was a springboard into work in television and as the government's youth mental health ambassador.

He presented Dr Alex: Our Young Mental Health Crisis on BBC1 in 2021. His fifth book, Am I Normal?, is out today, the previous four were best sellers and he hosts the podcast Stompcast. But in July 2020 his world was turned upside down with the suicide of his brother Llyr, aged 19.

The loss devastated Alex and caused him to spiral into depression and turn to drink. It also made Alex, 34, look at British attitudes about grief and call for a change.

He says: "I'll never get over the death of my brother, and that's OK. Do you ever want to get to the place where you're like, 'I'm fine he's dead - I'm cool with the fact my brother killed himself?'.

"In this country, we tell people that when someone dies they'll get over it eventually. We try to move on immediately after the funeral. If you're still sad months or, heaven forbid, years later it makes you think: 'What's wrong with me?'

"There's nothing wrong with you."