This Morning stars Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary have paid tribute to their former colleague Matthew Lock, who died two years ago, and spoken to his parents on today’s show. Matthew tragically took his own life in 2023, with his parents Christine and Richard Lock campaigning to raise awareness of ADHD, which their late son had been diagnosed with.
Dermot praised Matthew’s “love for gadgets” with Alison saying: “We absolutely adored your boy, we loved him, didn’t we?” Dermot added: “He just had this passion and enthusiasm. He had funny bones, he was kind, he was caring. We didn’t get to meet him an awful lot but he was a breath of fresh air when he came into This Morning.”
Speaking about their son, Christine said: “He would help anyone, he would talk to everybody in the community – young, old. He was caring, sensitive – but that can sometimes be an ADHD trait. That you can be overly sensitive, basically emotional dysregulation can come into it.”
They added that while Matthew had been diagnosed with autism when he was younger, his ADHD had been missed by professionals. “Lack of focus, inattention to things he wasn’t interested in, disorganisation, everything last minute. If he wanted to something, ‘I’ll do it now,'” Christine said, speaking about his symptoms.
“He was very sociable so the autism side I thought, ‘Perhaps this is ADHD as well,’ but we didn’t realise that the two could co-exist.”
Alison later asked Christine and Richard: “The craziest thing is that adults are three times more likely to use drugs or have a drug issue or alcohol. Our Matthew did struggle with that, didn’t he?”
Christine said: “From the age of about 17,” with Richard adding: “Within the ADHD, 50 percent of people find some sort of addiction – whether that be gambling, drugs, alcohol, social media. All of those things play into that. There are a lot of people who are struggling in that area but they just don’t know that it’s linked to ADHD.”
In October 2023, Matthew’s death was ruled as a suicide with a hearing being told that prior to his death, “there had been concern about his drinking and use of ketamine, for which he did not want any help”. Toxicology results had found that he had taken both substances prior to his tragic death, the inquest heard.
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