Medway actor Lee Hunter is hoping a new film on suicide will help battle the stigma surrounding mental health and help prevent suicide.

Lee grew up in Gillingham and went to Rainham Mark Grammar School, before embarking on an acting career which has seen him play roles in Eastenders, Vikings, and more recently the Kent-based thriller Whitstable Pearl.

But he says it had been a long term ambition to make a film tackling suicide, in memory of his sister Danielle, who suffered from bi-polar disorder and died in 2012.

Last year that ambition came to fruition with the creation of On My Own, which stars Lee alongside fellow actor and friend Anthony Lewis, who many will recognise from Emmerdale and Torchwood.

The film sees Lee feature as a cleaner working on the top floor of a financial institution when he comes across an employee, played by Anthony, about to take their own life.

It's since gone on to be shown at 13 film festivals as well as a private screening at the BBC, and has recently been licenced to be screened on Aer Lingus flights.

"I wanted to use my skillset to raise awareness and get discussions going," explained Lee, 35. "In between acting I help my dad who runs a fire protection business. I went to a work site with him in London and a maintenance man said one of the financiers came out on to the top floor a few days ago and climbed onto the bannisters and jumped into the courtyard below.

"I just thought 'what could bring someone to do that?'. The writer and actor in me thought what could I have done in that situation if I tried to talk to somebody. That's kind of where the seed was sown for the project, together with the fact I'd wanted to do something because of my sister. One night I couldn't sleep and I wrote this short script up."

At the time Lee was living with Anthony and his brother Matt, who previously played Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter, and became an executive producer for On My Own along with Lee's dad and Corin West.

Another Lewis brother - Chris - edited the film, while further financial support came from a Crowdfunding campaign.

"We shot it in London on the roof of the Old Truman Brewery over two days," added Lee. "It was great but it was quite stressful - it was my baby so I was having to think lots of things aside from acting.

"Me and Tony know each other so we would go into these deep scenes but because we're good friends it was easy to let off steam in between, which I think is healthy when you're dealing with that type of situation."

And while he's pleased the film is finding an audience, Lee's keen to get the film out to even more festivals and potential venues.

"It was never a project to make money," he added. "It's a tool to create discussion. The only way to fight the stigma is to talk about it and create these discussions.

"I know three men locally in Medway that have taken their lives and as a guy in his mid 30s, it's the biggest killer of men my age and that's something I believe we, as a society, need to address. I think that creating discussion is a huge step in fighting the stigma that surrounds mental health."

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