[Applause]
1 million people died from suicide every
single year that’s one person every 40
seconds yet the smallest things can make
the biggest difference
not that long guy I read a story it was
about a little boy called Bill who was
believed by all the other kids in his
class and one day as he was walking home
from school the bullies pushed him over
and sent all his things flying across
the ground and while the other kids
laughed and pointed and made fun of him
there was one boy who didn’t
instead he knelt down next to him and
helped him pick up his fingers then he
walked him home and they started talking
and they became friends but it was only
years later bill admitted he had planned
to kill himself that day and it was one
random boys act of kindness that stopped
him now I’ve got to admit this story
wasn’t very well written my English
teacher would say it needed more
adjectives in better punctuation and
more creative sentence starters but
that’s not what this is about
it wasn’t written to become a best andin
novel or only or for billions of pounds
it was written to spread a message a
message that a tiny connection between
two people could save someone’s life the
message that something as simple is
helping someone pick their books up or
smiling at someone or telling them their
hair looks nice that day it could mean
far more than you know every single one
of us in this room have been mean to
someone at least once in our lives and
it’s a life you say you haven’t I have
you have some of you but we’re human and
we make mistakes and that’s okay but
it’s not okay is sitting back and
watching someone suffer when you know
you could be helping human connection is
what changes people’s lives and we have
the ability to create that change so why
don’t we do it well a few weeks ago at
school I saw a girl run past me crying
but I was so scared about a science test
I hadn’t experienced a saw her again she
had cuts up haraam
and they hadn’t been there before and
they might never have been that if I
just taken the time to talk to her to
connect with her to get to know her so
I’ll say it again
human connection is what changes
people’s lives and we have the ability
to create that change so do it that day
was a hard one but it taught me an
important lesson to always take the time
to connect with someone because the
smallest actions have the biggest
consequences so let me finish by asking
you all to do me a favor before you
leave her today smile at the person
sitting next to you or start a
conversation with someone you’ve never
met before because during the time I’ve
spoken five people would have killed
themselves and I hope one day our smiles
huh how was that you wanted to be part
good yeah
my legs are stop shaking now so yeah so
they’ve got gone from blue to we now the
floor Inge the full orange pride thing
what what was it particularly of all the
things that you could talk about what
was it there made you really want to
focus in on this the little things
because it’s real it happens every day
and people don’t even know about it yeah
have you ever had I hope you ever been
aware of anybody giving you a sort of a
random act of kindness have you been on
the receiving end I think I’ve never
really thought about it until I did
start writing my speech and then like
you kind of notice things a little bit
more like in maps my pencil fell and
like the girl in front of me picked it
up for me and smiled at me and it was
like a tiny little thing it meant a lot
so the tiny little thing and you
mentioned smile quite a bit this idea is
just to smile at somebody who wasn’t
normally expecting it and or smile at a
stranger without getting arrested for
looking a bit weird on the bus although
I remember I lived in Hong Kong once and
I was that there was a rains a lot in
Hong Kong and I was standing there
waiting to go up the street and this
girl came up to me and sort of offered
me would you like to borrow my umbrella
just to sort of walk with me up the
street in it it changes everything it’s
just a little thing but it changes
everything and the smile can change all
sorts of things just a little thing well
what would you what how would you
encourage people who aren’t doing it
like your friends to grasp this idea
that these little things can what would
you do I think do it to them like do
kind things for them because when you do
something they’re more likely to do it
back okay so you start you start starts
with you and Gandhi said be the change
you want to see in the world so it’s
that so we all start by being a bit
kinder and then it spreads so we’ve got
ideas worth spreading and now we’ve got
kindness worth spreading as well
brilliant how do thank you very much [Applause]
1 million people died from suicide every
single year that’s one person every 40
seconds yet the smallest things can make
the biggest difference
not that long guy I read a story it was
about a little boy called Bill who was
believed by all the other kids in his
class and one day as he was walking home
from school the bullies pushed him over
and sent all his things flying across
the ground and while the other kids
laughed and pointed and made fun of him
there was one boy who didn’t
instead he knelt down next to him and
helped him pick up his fingers then he
walked him home and they started talking
and they became friends but it was only
years later bill admitted he had planned
to kill himself that day and it was one
random boys act of kindness that stopped
him now I’ve got to admit this story
wasn’t very well written my English
teacher would say it needed more
adjectives in better punctuation and
more creative sentence starters but
that’s not what this is about
it wasn’t written to become a best andin
novel or only or for billions of pounds
it was written to spread a message a
message that a tiny connection between
two people could save someone’s life the
message that something as simple is
helping someone pick their books up or
smiling at someone or telling them their
hair looks nice that day it could mean
far more than you know every single one
of us in this room have been mean to
someone at least once in our lives and
it’s a life you say you haven’t I have
you have some of you but we’re human and
we make mistakes and that’s okay but
it’s not okay is sitting back and
watching someone suffer when you know
you could be helping human connection is
what changes people’s lives and we have
the ability to create that change so why
don’t we do it well a few weeks ago at
school I saw a girl run past me crying
but I was so scared about a science test
I hadn’t experienced a saw her again she
had cuts up haraam
and they hadn’t been there before and
they might never have been that if I
just taken the time to talk to her to
connect with her to get to know her so
I’ll say it again
human connection is what changes
people’s lives and we have the ability
to create that change so do it that day
was a hard one but it taught me an
important lesson to always take the time
to connect with someone because the
smallest actions have the biggest
consequences so let me finish by asking
you all to do me a favor before you
leave her today smile at the person
sitting next to you or start a
conversation with someone you’ve never
met before because during the time I’ve
spoken five people would have killed
themselves and I hope one day our smiles
huh how was that you wanted to be part
good yeah
my legs are stop shaking now so yeah so
they’ve got gone from blue to we now the
floor Inge the full orange pride thing
what what was it particularly of all the
things that you could talk about what
was it there made you really want to
focus in on this the little things
because it’s real it happens every day
and people don’t even know about it yeah
have you ever had I hope you ever been
aware of anybody giving you a sort of a
random act of kindness have you been on
the receiving end I think I’ve never
really thought about it until I did
start writing my speech and then like
you kind of notice things a little bit
more like in maps my pencil fell and
like the girl in front of me picked it
up for me and smiled at me and it was
like a tiny little thing it meant a lot
so the tiny little thing and you
mentioned smile quite a bit this idea is
just to smile at somebody who wasn’t
normally expecting it and or smile at a
stranger without getting arrested for
looking a bit weird on the bus although
I remember I lived in Hong Kong once and
I was that there was a rains a lot in
Hong Kong and I was standing there
waiting to go up the street and this
girl came up to me and sort of offered
me would you like to borrow my umbrella
just to sort of walk with me up the
street in it it changes everything it’s
just a little thing but it changes
everything and the smile can change all
sorts of things just a little thing well
what would you what how would you
encourage people who aren’t doing it
like your friends to grasp this idea
that these little things can what would
you do I think do it to them like do
kind things for them because when you do
something they’re more likely to do it
back okay so you start you start starts
with you and Gandhi said be the change
you want to see in the world so it’s
that so we all start by being a bit
kinder and then it spreads so we’ve got
ideas worth spreading and now we’ve got
kindness worth spreading as well
brilliant how do thank you very much [Applause]
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