Two grieving parents will put on a concert in memory of their late son.
Ronak and Kasia Halani have organised the fundraising event, Jak’s World, on February 2, to remember their son, Jakub Halani.
Jakub took his own life on February 2 last year aged 19 and, since then, his parents have created a non-profit organisation in his name called Jak’s World, where they provide suicidal first aid and practical support to the youth.
His mother has since become a qualified emotional therapy practitioner.
She explained: “I always told him how much he means to me, how much I love him, so it was quite shocking.
“Following that, there were around 300 people at the funeral, most of them were his friends, young people.
“And that is when I started seeing the ripple effect of what happened, because more and more young people started to come and talk to me.
“A few days ago, I assisted someone in a crisis through A&E because they wanted to end it, and I just thought that something needs to be done here.”
According to the parents, the money raised from the concert will fund the organisation’s services towards suicidal first aid, education and career support, gambling awareness and emotional first aid.
The event will begin at 7pm in Princess Street, and the tickets cost £10.
Jakub’s step-father Ronak, who has been divorced from Kasia for 10 years, had raised Jakub since he was two.
He explained: “He was our pride and joy, he was my only son, he was extremely intelligent and sensitive.
“In terms of his intelligence, he smashed his education, even with Covid, he smashed his GCSEs, on all the key subjects, he got nines, we were really proud of him.
“Even after his education, he chose his own career in music, and even in that he had a massive success, and he was only on an upward trajectory.”
Jakub came to the UK from Poland at two years old and was an aspiring musician.
Mum Kasia added: “During Covid he was working on his music, he was really good at it, it’s not something I listened to, but I was always supportive.
“I never realised how famous and respected he became, for me as a mum, I wasn’t checking on the number of followers on social media.”
Jakub amassed around 80 million listeners on his music on various streaming sites as well as collaborations with Sony and Universal.
Artists that he collaborated with including H25 and Comfy will perform at the concert, some of them will perform with Jakub’s beats.
His mum added: “In the last year of his life, he always wanted to look mint and pull some girls like all the boys his age, so he always went out clubbing.
“He had a small group of friends, he was very loyal and dedicated.”
Kasia Halani believes young people do not have confidence in professional helpers in the mental health space anymore.
She explained: “Even if we focus on Jakub’s friends, they don’t have any confidence in professionals anymore, unless you’re bleeding to death or running around naked, they aren’t going to do anything for you.
“They will say, “Why don’t you call your GP, or they’ll give you tablets and talking therapy.’”
Her ultimate ambition is to open a music studio in her son’s honour as a safe space for youths to express themselves.
She added: “My son’s ambition was to open a studio, so I want to open a studio, as a place where they can talk to me and see that there are other things possible, not just smoking weed and self medicating.”
Tickets to the concert can be bought via this link
Jak’s World has a just giving donation page which can be accessed via this link
