I want to tell you about a graphic I made last week.
It started as a simple idea. Five places. Five truths. The places men in crisis actually go, and the thing they never say while they are there.
A GP waiting room. He sat there for 40 minutes and told nobody.
A court corridor. He was terrified. He looked like he was fine.
A prison library. He had three hours alone. He had nothing to read.
A barber's chair. He talked about football. He was falling apart inside.
A refuge waiting room. He finally left. He had no idea what came next.
I wrote those five rows in about ten minutes. I didn't labour over them. I just thought about the men I've spoken to, the stories I've heard, the messages I've received at 2am from people who found my books when they had nothing else. And I wrote down what was true.
The response stopped me.
Not because it went viral. Not because of the numbers. But because of the messages. Man after man saying I was in that waiting room. I was in that corridor. I was that man in the barber's chair talking about the football.
That is why Leave No Man Behind exists.
Not because I had a clever marketing idea. Not because I wanted to build a movement. But because I kept thinking about all the men sitting in those places right now, today, this morning, carrying something they haven't told anyone, and there is nothing there for them.
He is not going to call a helpline. Most men don't. He is not going to tell his mates. Most men won't. He is not going to walk into a therapy room and talk about his feelings to a stranger.
But he might pick up a book quietly. If it is there.
That is the whole idea. Buy a copy of Why Didn't You Just Leave Them. Leave it somewhere men go. A refuge, a prison library, a GP surgery, a barber shop, a court waiting room. Photograph it there and send it to me.
I'm building a live map of every location across every country where a book lands. In the first week we had books in GP surgeries in East Sussex, in Canberra Australia, in libraries in Scotland, in suicide prevention clinics, in waiting rooms. The map is growing.
I'll be sharing that map with national newspapers, television journalists, and politicians until the scale of what men are going through becomes impossible to ignore.
One book. One place. One man at a time.
If you want to place a pin, buy your copy here: amzn.eu/d/05NoQy0i
If you want to read the full story of the movement: payhip.com/JaredWhitakerAuthor/blog/news/leave-no-man-behind-a-movement-to-get-books-into-the-hands-of-men-in-crisis
And if you are one of the men I described above, sitting somewhere quiet right now, I want you to know something.
I see you. You are not alone. And there is a book with your name on it somewhere in the world, waiting for you to find it.
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