THE father of a bright 21-year-old who took her own life is set to record one of his own songs for the first time - with a little help from his friends at Blackburn College.

Tony Harrison, from Darwen, hopes his song will raise awareness of young suicide and in turn, raise money for PAPYRUS, a local charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide among young people.

His daughter Vicky died in 2010, leaving her friends and family heartbroken.

Mr Harrison used to be a semi-professional drummer but had never written a song in his life until the tragic loss of his daughter inspired him.

He said: “Some of Vicky’s friends set up a commemorative Facebook page for her and were writing nice things. I sat there and thought, ‘well what can I write?’ and I just sat and wrote everything that I was feeling and before I knew it, I’d filled five pages.”

From then on, Mr Harrison found that writing helped him ‘absolutely’ and he began writing more often.

“I had this song lying around but couldn’t afford to record it but Blackburn College said they’d help me out with it and record it with me,” Mr Harrison said.

Joseph Bamford, technician and lecturer at Blackburn College, said: “The college exists around young people, so it seemed only natural to offer our support to raise awareness for such a worthy cause.”

Mr Bamford, from Accrington, will play on the single along with Mr Harrison and fellow musician and lecturer, Iain Reddy. The three of them will hit the studio next week.

Tony said that music was very important to Vicky and was a large part of her upbringing.

He hopes that the song will get people talking about young suicide.

He said: “We’ve got to raise awareness. Young people are taking their own lives all too often. I wish we could stop it. I know we can’t stop it all but we can talk about it and in some cases, prevent it.”