In episode 264 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with David Leck.
David Leck is a communications professional, writer, editor, copywriter and the business owner and Managing Director of David Leck Associates.
Our Founder Freddie met David whilst he was working in the BBC Press Office from 2019-2020.
David’s career in the BBC started when he was a young man and he worked in various departments before ending up in the HR department. As has been the case throughout BBC history, a restructure was then due to take place and his role was going to be impacted by it.
His boss told him there was a six-month role going in the BBC Press Office, he applied and got in. He did that role for three years before leaving the Beeb to take up a Head of Marketing role at a theatre in Kent which he did for five years.
Getting tired of theatre marketing life, he left there and went to a PR agency but had a terrible experience there and he decided to become self-employed and start his own PR consultancy business.
He then got a short-term, part-time contract with the BBC World Service which allowed him to balance his new communications business and a regular paycheque.
Still retaining some BBC contacts, he was asked back to do a few shifts in the BBC Press Office and some 20 years later, he was still there helping out, until he finally called it a day in April 2024.
In recent years David has started doing some amazing volunteer work for a suicide bereavement charity called Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS).
He did this because he lost a close friend called Derek, who tragically took his own life on 6th May 2021.
David had known Derek for around 7/8 years but he did not know the extent of Derek’s mental health challenges so his death by suicide was a huge shock for him and provoked many ‘what if’ type questions.
In this episode we chart his various and illustrious professional journey, a peek behind the curtains of the BBC Press Office, his love of the art of writing and some of his favourite projects he’s done through David Leck Associates.
We then discuss his experience of anxiety and depression, Derek’s life, and death and the devastation of suicide loss on the loved ones of that person.
We finish by discussing his mentoring role to many BBC press officers throughout the years, his love of martial arts as a positive tool to help his mental health, and his dog, a miniature Schnauzer called Dylan who has brought so much joy and companionship to his life.
As always, #itsokaytovent
You can find out more about David Leck Associates here.
You can read the article David wrote on Derek’s life and death here.
You can find out more about SOBS here.
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