Oxford’s Will Vaulks: ‘My grandads took their own lives – I want to save other families from what we went through’
INTERVIEW: The Oxford United and Wales midfielder is an award-winning campaigner for mental wellbeing and suicide prevention. He tells Lawrence Ostlere how the devastating impact of his grandfathers’ deaths inspired him to save lives
Will Vaulks was close to both of his grandfathers. “Granddad Tom, my dad’s dad, he took his own life first. He was very much like Jack the lad.
He had a red Kawasaki 500 motorbike. He used to have a phrase when he looked after us, he’d say ‘when the cat’s away, the mice will play’ which was essentially when Mum and Dad weren’t there, there were no rules. He was brilliant fun.
“Grandad Hywel was a completely different man. He was really gentle, kind, loving, in a typical Grandma-Grandad house with baked apple crumble – I can still smell the house now. He’d sit you on his knee and read you a story.
He taught me to play badminton and frisbee. He was just a lovely, kind, gentle man. ” Vaulks was 13 when Grandad Tom took his own life, and 14 when Grandad Hywel died in the same way less than 18 months later.
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