Matthew Lock: Parents of late teenager and This Morning star who took his own life issue plea for ADHD support and screening
The parents of a teenager who was a regular contributor on the ITV show THis Morning have called for better support and screening of ADHD after their son took his own life.
Matthew Lock was just 19 years old went he took his own life in 2023. It came after he developed an addiction to alcohol and ketamine.
Matthew was known to viewers of This Morning, making several appearances on the show as ‘TheVacMat’ reviewing vacuum cleaners. He was also a Labour councillor for Maghull and Lydiate, in his hometown of Sefton.
Parents Richard and Christine, who launched the Matthew Lock ADHD Charity in his honour, have now called on schools and GPs to increase screening of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It comes after they desperately attempted to get help for Matthew, but the teen went undiagnosed for many years.
Speaking to The Mirror, Christine said: “I understand that when people have lost somebody, especially a child, they go on to fight for them. I've looked at that in the past and wondered how does the parent have the emotion to go on?
"But now I get it. It's what gets us up. We don't want to see another child take their life or have a poor mental health outcome. We want children to thrive.
"And they can when they understand. We could have had different conversations with Matthew and we could have understood each other, but we didn't understand Matthew.”
She added that her son “didn’t understand himself”, explaining that better support and screening of ADHD could help save the lives of thousands of children.
Christine said: "If a child needs a pair of glasses or a crutch or anything to help them, you wouldn't deny it to them. So it's help, it's accommodation, it's strategies, coping mechanisms and understanding how the ADHD brain works. Because of the waiting times, these things are turning into the point where they're getting into crisis."
Richard added: "It was only after Matthew's death that we now understand the link between 50% of people with ADHD having an addiction problem. That could be drugs, that could be drink alcohol, gambling, it can be an eating disorder.
"If that then goes undiagnosed, what does that do for the mental state of that person? They're going to go into a deep spiral. If we can get screening done early then lives can be changed."
The couple travelled to Westminster on Tuesday, where Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson led a Westminster Hall debate about support for people with ADHD. Esterson called Richard and Christine “formidable campaigners”, telling BBC News: "They've already made a difference with changes on the NHS website and with some of the diagnostic testing that is available."
He added that "changes that are needed to improve ADHD diagnosis and treatment and support" and that this making this change would pay tribute to Matthew.
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