Former X Factor star Janet Devlin has a message of hope for anyone suffering from suicidal thoughts this Christmas – “The Samaritans saved my life and they could save yours.” Janet was 16 when she topped the charts with Wishing On A Star as part of the 2011 X-Factor finalists’ ensemble. But in the years after finding overnight fame, she fell prey to depression, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts.
The County-Tyrone-born singer told the Express: “I never anticipated being here past 20 but by some miracle I am.” Janet, 30 last week, has just released her critically acclaimed third album, Emotional Rodeo, and says the lead single Best Life reflects how she feels about herself now. She credits The Samaritans – a charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the British Isles – for saving her.
She said, “Whenever I take a train, I guarantee as I approach that yellow line to wait, I’ll see that little green Samaritans’ logo on a poster staring back at me and I’m transported back to a time when I didn’t even trust myself to wait by the platform edge. “Fearing my own actions. “You’d think by now, almost ten years later, the Samaritans signage would blend into the background.
That I’d take no notice. But I do. Every.
Single. Time. “If you were to take my phone now and look at my contacts, ‘Sam’ will be there.
An old friend I called many times in my past but slowly .
