British soap Hollyoaks has announced a special Mental Health Awareness Week episode to highlight the support available for transgender youth in the UK.

An episode airing during Mental Health Awareness Week, which takes place between 12 and 18 May, will see trans teen Ro Hutchinson (played by Ava Webster) reach crisis point and contemplate suicide.

In a key scene, Ro will phone an LGBTQ+ helpline and be talked into safety, raising awareness of the support available for trans people struggling with their mental health.

To mark the storyline’s climax, Hollyoaks will also change its logo on Monday 12 May to include the colours of the transender Pride flag: blue, pink, and white.

Over the past year, the socially conscious soap has followed Ro as he began to socially transition, with the support of his parents Tony and Diane.

Yet in recent months, the youngster has increasingly struggled with the lack of gender-affirming care available to him due to his age.

He has also endured progressively worsening, anti-trans abuse at the hands of bully Arlo (Dan Hough), both online and in person, with Ro being taunted by orders to take his own life.

Recent scenes saw Ro dealing with the bullying via excessive drinking, before accessing an online forum for LGBTQ+ people and making an online friend in Nina. Trans Casualty star Mattie Packer will play the role of Nina in scenes set to air, while Wednesday actor Oliver Wickham will play a support worker named Matt in the episode.

While Nina convinces Ro to head to a trans support group, he ultimately changes his mind as he reaches crisis point with his mental health and experiences extreme suicidal ideation.

On the advice of his friend Kathleen-Angel McQueen (Kiara Mellor) though, he contacts an LGBTQ+ helpline, and speaks to call handler Eve, played by the episode’s trans writer, Emma Frankland.

The episode will be shown from both Ro and Eve’s perspectives, enlightening Hollyoaks’ millions of viewers on avenues of support available for trans people, and what that support looks like in practice. 

In a statement, actress and writer Frankland said that “we know the power that a conversation has to change someone’s path and the route that they’re on”.

“I’m really happy we’re showing Ro in this truthful recognisable place and we’re showing that there is an alternative and there is hope,” she added.

Charities including Samaritans, Papyrus and LGBT Switchboard – which runs the UK’s national LGBTQIA+ support line – have all been involved in ensuring Ro’s storyline is accurate and representative of real-life scenarios faced by trans people in the UK.

Though Ro’s storyline has felt pertinent since its inception, it is increasingly relevant following the UK Supreme Court’s ruling last month which ruled that trans women are not legally defined as women.

In a unanimous judgement, five Supreme Court judges ruled in April that the 2010 Equality Act’s definitions of women and sex relate to “biological women” and “biological sex”.

Earlier this month, 14 LGBTQ+ charities warned of a looming “crisis” for trans and non-binary people in the UK owing to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Hollyoaks airs Mondays to Wednesdays on Channel 4 streaming from 7am, then on E4 the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week post airing on Channel 4 and E4.

Switchboard’s national LGBTQIA+ support line can be contacted via phone (0800 0119100), email (hello@switchboard.lgbt) and live chat.

Suicide is preventable. Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org), or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). ​Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.

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