Poison (Pt 1) - The life of Tom Parfett
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Warning, this episode contains discussions about suicide.
In October, 2021 David Parfett’s 22-year-old son, Tom, took his own life.
In the first of a three-part podcast we hear from David about the events that led up to the university student’s death.
If you or someone you know has been affected by suicide or needs to talk to someone, please get in contact with the Samaritans online https://www.samaritans.org/ or call them for free on their 24-hour helpline 116 123.
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Host: James Beal, Social Affairs Editor, The Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Nanvin here. |
| 0:04.6 | Over the next three days, I'm handing over to James Beale, the social affairs editor |
| 0:09.8 | at the Times. |
| 0:11.6 | Last year, James had a conversation with a father of a 22-year-old British student who |
| 0:18.4 | had taken his own life. |
| 0:20.7 | It began an investigation which took James to North America looking for answers. |
| 0:27.2 | Today, we bring you the first episode of Poison, a three-pot podcast here on Stories |
| 0:34.6 | of Our Times. |
| 0:36.8 | Before we begin, the following podcast contains discussions about suicide. |
| 0:41.9 | If you or anyone you know may be affected by this, there's a link in the episode notes |
| 0:46.9 | to the Samaritan's website and phone number. |
| 0:50.2 | You can do consider if you should continue listening. |
| 0:57.2 | It's just after 12 on a winter's day in February this year, and I'm in the front room of a |
| 1:09.2 | family home. |
| 1:10.2 | I'm here with David Parfitt, a 54-year-old who works in IT. |
| 1:15.2 | There's a photo here of Tom with Tigger sitting on a large, great couch looking at old |
| 1:21.8 | family photos. |
| 1:23.3 | Absolutely grinning, really happy. |
| 1:28.1 | His son, Tom, around seven or eight years old in this photo has floppy blonde hair and |
| 1:33.0 | glasses. |
| 1:34.0 | He smiles into the camera at Disneyland Paris. |
| 1:37.6 | But yeah, we used to pop over there as a family and of course, as a kid, it's just a magical |
... |
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