Grieving mother writes heartfelt open letter after bullies drove her son to suicide

A grieving mother whose teenage son killed himself has written a heartfelt letter to the bullies who drove him to suicide.

Lucy Alexander's 17-year-old son Felix took his own life near his home in Worcester after years of teasing and abuse from school mates.

Ms Alexander told ITV's This Morning that the bullying began with "little incidences of unkindness" when he was just 10.

"Little comments about why didn't he have this, why didn't he have that, not being invited to a party - it was more exclusion that anything else," she said.

Ms Alexander said he thought the teasing would settle when he entered senior school, but it just escalated.

Classmates at Felix's £13,000-a-year King's School teased him because he was not allowed to play the violent video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

However, teachers missed the signs of the bullying.

"At school they said 'I can't see a problem because he's always got a smile on his face'," Ms Alexander said.

"He held that smile and he performed all day at school and it was only when he came home that he would cry."

Felix's mother said she wrote the letter, which is published in full in the Worcester News, to stimulate important conversations about bullying.

"I desperate need to raise awareness about this - I desperately need for people to talk to their children, for teachers to train, for parents to guide their children through all this stuff that they look at," she said.

"It's really simple - just be kind. It's a thing that we're missing in our teaching, and our talking - it's very cool to be snappy and hit with the banter but not to be kind."