HER SMILE beams from dozens of family photographs – a picture of happiness, it appears, at the heart of her family.

The shock, then, for Sally Allan’s husband, two sons and daughter to discover she had been hiding a profound struggle with her mental health was seismic.

And the fact her problem only came to light when she slipped out of her Ponteland home in the early hours of Boxing Day, 2015 – giving her close and loving family neither the time nor the chance to help her – is still painfully raw.

The last images of her, captured by CCTV on Newcastle Quayside, a white-clad apparition walking alongside the River Tyne and the waters that eventually swallowed her, are truly haunting.

Her son Clive says today: “We think now she might have been hiding her poor mental health since her 20s, when her mum died.

“With hindsight, we think she had quite intense mental health problems throughout her life, but had become adept at hiding them.

“There were small signs, looking back, but nothing at all that would ever indicate suicide. We just never saw that coming.”

Sally was such a warm, giving person, always putting everyone before herself, that the family feel she sacrificed her own wellbeing in doing so.

Spurred on by that sense of despair at not having pulled her back from the edge, the family launched the Sally Allan Fund. The aim: to both raise awareness of the signs of poor mental health and, even more importantly, how individuals can nurture their own mental wellbeing.

The fund was established with the £25,000 the Allans raised in the wake of the tragedy, fuelled, no doubt, by the intense media coverage of the search for Sally. Her body wasn’t retrieved from the river by police divers at Jarrow until February 3.

Managed by the Northumberland and Tyneside branch of Mind, the mental health charity, the awareness-raising presentations that will be the fund’s hallmark are being rolled out now.

The first one in Tynedale will take place a stone’s throw from the Allan family home, in St Mary’s Church Hall, Thornhill Road, Ponteland, on Wednesday, February 15, at 7pm. The presentation is open to everybody and will last 45 minutes.

Her husband, Gordon, said: “The aim of the Sally Allan Fund is to improve the mental health of the North-East.

“Mental health is just as important as physical health, but a quarter of us will experience a mental health issue during the course of this year alone.

“By giving people a better understanding of their own mental health, we hope they will reach out to others and through those conversations, start to remove the fear and stigma.”

The family themselves will be at this particular presentation and during the question and answer session that takes place afterwards, they will be happy to share what they have learned over the past 12 months.

Everyone who attends will receive a free booklet full of tips and guidance on self care, as well as information about local and national support services. The presentation is designed for people of all ages.

A presentation in Hexham is currently being arranged.

Clive said: “We want to get people talking about mental health. If my mum had done so, she might have got the treatment she so obviously needed.

“The main headline in today’s newspaper is Theresa May’s pledge to overhaul mental health services – it is such an underfunded and over stigmatised subject that people are afraid to speak up.”

Clive’s wife, Annie Eccles, said: “It has been noticeable since Sally died and we as a family began raising awareness of mental health, just how many people have come to us and admitted they have been struggling.

“It’s almost like people need a green light to talk about it. But if we can be that green light, that’s great.

“The sad thing is, the way the Allan family are, they would have been the first to rally round and help. They are the most supportive of families.”

It is when people don’t talk that problems become overwhelming, and suicide becomes more likely, said Clive

“It’s hard on other people, too, when they look back and think they should have spotted the signs,” he said.

“We realise now it would have taken a huge effort to turn my mum’s mental health around – it would have meant digging really deep into her past to get to the bottom of it.

“Not everyone will show signs they are having problems and even if they do, it’s not necessarily the right way to go about things ‘confronting’ them with it.

“It’s difficult either way, but what’s important is to listen to them, to be non-judgmental and perhaps suggest they go to see their GP as a starting point.”

The presentation, which is given free of charge, can be booked by businesses, clubs, charities, community groups or simply a group of friends anywhere across the region.

Further information and contact details are available on the website at www.tynesidemind.org.uk.