He was the Love Island doctor who was seen as being unlucky in love on the phenomenally successful ITV reality show.
Alex George, an A&E doctor who appeared on Love Island in 2018 has spoken about the regular counselling sessions he has had since being on the show - which came under the spotlight following the suicides of two Love Island contestants – and Caroline Flack, the show’s presenter in February, last year.
Now he has been thrust into the limelight again - this time as the UK's youth mental health ambassador.
The Welshman from Carmarthen, will help shape policy and advise on mental health support for children and young people.
He has been campaigning for better support following the death of his younger brother, Llyr, last year.
The 19-year-old, who was due to attend medical school, took his own life in July after suffering mental health issues.
Dr George said: "He never told us that he was struggling.
"If there wasn't such a stigma... he might have asked for help," he said.
Since his appearance in Love Island in 2018, Dr George has been back in his day job, working in A&E at University Hospital Lewisham in London.
Today he was namechecked in Parliament by leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg as he said children struggling with mental health problems can attend school if it helps.
He said: “The Prime Minister announced a new youth mental health ambassador, Dr Alex George, who will be working with the Government to promote the importance of mental health education and support in our schools to help young people build resilience.
“And we’re making sure there is support available for any children who may be struggling with their mental health currently.
“Schools have the flexibility to offer a place in school to vulnerable children, which might include those for whom being in school helps them manage their mental health.”
Dr George said it is a failure of society that people do not feel able to talk about mental health issues.
He has told Prime Minister Boris Johnson he wants people to be more aware of their mental health and how to protect it.
“When things go wrong – as they do in life, we can’t put cotton wool around people, we can’t prevent bad things happening in the world – but if we can give people that toolkit so that when things go wrong they know how to look after themselves, they know who to go to,” Dr George said.
“I lost my brother in the summer, he was 19, about to go to medical school and we were incredibly proud of him as a family, and sadly he took his own life, and I think the pressures of this pandemic played a big part.”
Dr George, seen talking with the Prime Minister at No 10 in a video released by Downing Street, said he wanted to break the “stigma” about mental health.
“I want to live in a world where people feel like they can speak about their mental health, the same way as their physical health,” he said.
As an A&E medic, Dr George said he often sees people struggling with their mental health, who only talk about it for the first time after ending up in hospital.
"I think that’s really sad, it’s almost a failure, in some ways, of society that that person couldn’t speak to a loved one or a friend or a GP before they ended up in that position."
Downing Street said Dr George will use his clinical expertise and personal experience to help shape policy on improving support for young people in schools, college and universities.
In January, Dr George said his “number one goal” for 2021 was to “help bring meaningful change to mental health education at schools across the UK”.
He urged his Instagram followers to help him meet the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet to make it happen.
Dr George, who will start the unpaid role immediately, working within the Department for Education, has previously said that counselling has helped him deal with how his life has changed since being on the show.
He said he had helped producers to look after contestants after their time on the show comes to an end.
And he says his own experiences have shaped that.
How Dr George was portrayed on Love Island
Love Island came under particular scrutiny following the deaths of former contestants Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon, a contestant from the 2016 series, who had been diagnosed with depression three years before she appeared on the show,.
"Love Island's massive and it's done very well - and the flipside of that is they have a duty of care to look after everyone. From my experience, these are people that really care," he said in 2019.
Ex-Love Islander Alex Miller revealed two years ago that he had felt suicidal after leaving the show.
Before the 2019 version of Love Island, the show hired Paul Litchfield, an adviser to the government on mental health issues, to review its aftercare procedures.
New measures were taken for the series, including more intensive preparation, with a focus on managing expectations and dealing with social media attention; the provision of a minimum of eight therapy sessions for each contestant after the show; and proactive contact for up to 14 months after the conclusion of the series.
Dr George told the BBC: "It's been an overwhelming week emotionally for me and my family. I met the prime minister on Tuesday and since then it's been a whirlwind. I've been blown away by the support from the public.
"This crisis has been awful but one of the things I think we can take as a positive is that we've realised how vital it is that we look after ourselves".
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