R;pple: A Digital Suicide Prevention Tool Offering Hope in Moments of Crisis
Suicide prevention is one of the most urgent challenges of our time, and technology is beginning to play a critical role in offering hope when it matters most. In this episode of Inside the Sweep, we revisit a powerful conversation with Alice Hendy, founder of R;pple Suicide Prevention, a digital tool created in memory of her brother Josh. R;pple is designed to intervene at the exact moment someone may be searching for harmful content online—offering not instructions to give up, but a lifeline toward help and healing.
Alice joins host John Robb to share R;pple’s journey since its early days, the partnerships making real impact, and the evolving role of technology and AI in suicide prevention. This is a conversation about resilience, innovation, and above all, the reminder that there is always hope.
John Robb
Welcome to the Netsweeper Inside the Sweep podcast. Today’s conversation is one that touches the heart, and one we’re revisiting with a familiar and inspiring guest. We’re joined once again by Alice Hendy, the founder of R;pple, a digital tool designed to offer hope and help at that very moment someone may need it most.
Last time we explored R;pple’s, origins and mission. Today we’re catching up on what’s been happening since we last spoke, how the mission continues to save lives and what’s ahead. Alice, welcome back to the podcast. It’s wonderful to have you here with us. For those hearing from you for the first time, can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about what R;pple is all about?
Alice Hendy
Thanks, John. Thank you very much to you and the Netsweeper team for having me. My name’s Alice. I set up R;pple back in 2020 and I set it up in memory of my brother Josh. Who very sadly, at the age of 21, took his own life in November, and in the immediate aftermath of losing Josh I became really just absolutely obsessed with going through all of his devices to find out why, you know, what was so bad in his life that he believed this was his best option.
And when I did that, I found that for several months prior to him making that decision, Josh had been going on the internet, and he’d been searching for how he could end his life. And it was those searches ultimately that provided Josh with tips, encouragement, step-by-step instructions on how he could go about ending his own life, and ultimately, he did so.
I came up with an idea and a concept to stop this happening to anybody else, and I’ve called it R;pple. It’s a piece of technology. It can be downloaded either as a browser extension or through Wi-Fi integration with DNS powered through Netsweeper. And once downloaded, it means that if anyone goes on the internet and searches for something harmful to do with self-harm or suicide, then the R;pple technology intercepts, intervenes, and instead signpost that person to much needed mental health support services.
John Robb
Thank you for sharing your story about your brother and the tragedy and how that inspired you to do what you’re doing. It cannot be easy. We know that for sure. Looking back now, how has that original purpose evolved and guided your work since the last time that we spoke?
Alice Hendy
I think when I first came up with the idea and when I last spoke to you, it was very early days. We were still finding our feet in the world of mental health, in the world of suicide prevention and also in the world of technology really. It’s become a bit of a monster. So, the team has expanded hugely, since last time. And considering I started this in my bedroom on my own, I have to pinch myself really on a daily basis that I’ve, now got a team, all over the world that are helping me to save lives in this way, and we’ve grown with it.
So, what I mean by that is technology has evolved. We’ve now got artificial intelligence and chat, GPT and chat bots and machine learning and so on, which although existed a number of years ago, is nowhere near the amount of popularity that it has now, we are trying to evolve with that. We’re trying to develop as quickly as technology, is also developing. And we’re trying to ensure that we’re helping as many people as possible, and that’s going to be an ongoing piece really for us as we continue, like most endeavors.
John Robb
You continue to evolve with technology. You’re now implementing AI. Things are moving forward. When you reflect on it, what have been some of the most meaningful developments or partnerships or impact stories that stand out to you in this period of time since your bedroom till now?
Alice Hendy
I think one of the main ones would be our partnership with Network Rail, who are a huge infrastructure service across the UK, and they partnered with us to implement R;pple on the Wi-Fi at some of their biggest train stations up and down the country. That for me is pretty poignant because unfortunately train stations are a common place that people might go when they’re feeling low and, and desperate. To know that we are intervening and intercepting people at those high-risk locations is really quite special.
So that’s one that stands out to me. Another one is quite a personal one and that is at the football club, West Ham United. Or soccer as you might know it, John. The reason that one is particularly poignant is because that’s my football team, that was my brother’s football team. For them to have got behind me in the manner that they have and continued to support me even up until now is, very special. I know this is something that Josh certainly would be looking down, smiling on.
John Robb
If that was his football team, I’m sure he’d be happy to know that they are supporting your endeavors, and I find it very encouraging that organizations like football clubs or infrastructure companies would actually support you in this way. They recognize the value in that, and I think that’s very encouraging.
We don’t necessarily see that a lot and that is an offshoot of what R;pple is doing. One of the things that’s always sort of struck me and kind of made sense about R;pple is your focus on creating hope through action. From your experience, what are the kinds of small, immediate steps that can genuinely shift someone’s outlook in that moment of crisis, because they’re already at peak crisis. What are the small things that can happen to help them in that moment?
Alice Hendy
One of the most powerful things you can do is ask directly if that person is experiencing suicidal thoughts. Now there’s a common misconception and myth out there that if you ask that question, you’re going to be putting the thought of suicide in their head and giving them ideas, and that’s completely wrong. Sometimes all it takes is actually asking directly. Are you having suicidal thoughts? Have you thought about taking your own life? And what you’ll often find is the person that you are asking will feel a huge sense of relief that you’ve asked them. And it opens that door and that level of communication for them to then share how they’re really feeling. And that could be lifesaving. So that’s one of the, the best bits of advice I could offer. It’s a small but significant piece of advice that could save lives.
John Robb
That seems to be a little bit opposite to way most people feel.
Alice Hendy
Yeah.
John Robb
When they might be afraid to ask directly, but at the same time, you want to have a conversation with them so they can feel seen and heard. Your suggestion is just ask it directly.
Alice Hendy
Absolutely. And look, don’t get me wrong, that’s hard to do. That’s not easy to have that courage to actually outright ask somebody a very difficult question where there’s the potential there of you receiving an answer that you don’t want to hear. But it’s a lifesaving question and it’s one that does need to be asked, and that the misconception that it will put ideas in their head or give them encouragement to go and take their own life is, absolutely not true.
John Robb
It is in fact the opposite.
Alice Hendy
Correct.
John Robb
Now, it is a hard conversation. People would hesitate, I imagine having this conversation. What are some of the subtle signs in behavior, mood, routine, should friends and family and teacher’s lookout for, in order to identify that? Maybe it is time to ask that hard question.
Alice Hendy
I’m going to use my brother as a typical example here. And the reason I’m going to use Josh as an example is because to be completely open and transparent with you, I missed all of the signs in my brother. Was he displaying signs? Yes, absolutely he was. And I didn’t know they were signs. I was uneducated in that respect.
It might not be the typical signs you would expect. It’s not always the person that’s walking with their head down who’s sad, who’s upset. Quite often it’s the person with the biggest smile. That’s the one that’s struggling the most. And when it came to my brother. He carried out actions that looking back were signs that I missed. A couple of examples would be he started to sell his items that he once loved. His PlayStation, his Xbox, all of his games, his iPad, his phone, selling them online.
He shaved all of his hair off. I, at that time thought maybe he just can’t be bothered to do his hair much anymore. I don’t know. He was always so keen on making sure that he looked good and gelling his hair up to the exact strand. So, when he shaved his hair off, it was a bit of a shock, but I just assumed it was because he fancied a change. In actual fact, it was because he’d completely lost interest in his appearance and his hygiene levels, even showering for him, became an absolutely mammoth task. And if you think about it, if you’re suicidal and you are that low and you’re that desperate, basic necessities that you and I take for granted become impossible to, achieve. So, look out for that. Look out for changes in their appearance and their hygiene.
Other signs, he was overly at peace, I would say. I remember one of the last conversations I had with Josh was, I’m actually the happiest I’ve ever been. He said, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been at the moment. And three days later, he took his own life. This sounds completely counterintuitive.
John Robb
Yeah.
Alice Hendy
But if you think, again, if you think about it logically. He was at peace with his decision that he’d made to take his own life. It was almost like all the stress and worry and anxiety had left his body, and he was totally at peace with what he was going to do. And he had an out, everything that had got him to that place, he’d put that behind him.
John Robb
Wow. Wow.
Alice Hendy
So, hopefully those examples give you an idea, an insight into the non-obvious things to look out for.
John Robb
One of the things we’ve looked at in other places has been routine. When people change their routine, that is an indication that something is up. Your brother changed his routine. They didn’t seem all that strange, but it was a change. And just being heightened to these things maybe helps.
Alice Hendy
Yeah. And a change in routine can be things like sleep patterns. So, I was getting WhatsApp messages from Josh at two o’clock in the morning, three o’clock in the morning. Now I remember when I was 21 and I would also send messages at two o’clock and three o’clock in the morning most often because I was out partying. When my brother was sending me those messages, I assumed the same. In actual fact he was wide awake throughout the night because he couldn’t sleep and then he was medicating himself in the day and sleeping in the day. His routine had completely changed. He should have been going to work nine to five and instead he was spending the day sleeping because he’d been up all night the night before with his own thoughts.
John Robb
And not helpful thoughts, either.
Alice Hendy
No, not helpful thoughts.
John Robb
Your tool R;pple intervenes at that very moment when someone is having those unhelpful thoughts and is searching for that harmful content. Can you give us a little sense of what happens in those next few critical seconds and why that timing can be so important in lifesaving?
Alice Hendy
When experiencing suicidal thoughts and mental health crisis they’re not thinking straight, and sometimes all it takes is an intervention at that pivotal moment to reframe how they’re thinking. And so, what R;pple does is; appears only if somebody was to conduct a harmful online search to do with self-harm or suicide, and it takes the user through a breathing exercise to ground them, it forces them to stop. It encourages them to pause and reframe how they’re thinking. And then once that breathing exercise is finished, it then signposts them to mental health resources that they can access not only immediately, but actually also in the longer term to help manage how they’re feeling on an ongoing day-to-day basis.
And our data shows that of the number of triggers, if you like, that R;pple has had over the last few years around a quarter of people choose to select one of the support options that are outlined on the R;pple tool as opposed to continuing on with their harmful searches. And just for context, that’s about 25 to 30,000 people that have gone to get support instead of looking at harmful material online.
John Robb
That’s 25,000 people that your tool has helped in that moment of crisis in order to get them away from those unhelpful thoughts.
Alice Hendy
Correct.
John Robb
It’s got to be rewarding.
Alice Hendy
Hugely. R;pple has always been for me, since day one. A purpose. It’s given me a reason to get up in the morning. It’s given me a reason to be here and knowing that it’s helping other people and. Potentially, I’m stopping other sisters out there feeling how I feel every day. It can only be a good thing. However, it’s also tinged with sadness because it’s too late for me and it’s too late for my family, and it’s too late for Josh.
John Robb
That is the sad part, and that’s where the R;pple name comes from, right? It’s the “ripple effects”. It’s not just the person that takes their own life; it’s everybody around them deals with that. And there’s actually some very alarming statistics about what happens afterwards.
Alice Hendy
Yeah. So, firstly, when somebody takes their own life, on average 135 people are directly impacted. It’s not just the brother, the sister, the mom, the dad, the auntie, the uncle that’s impacted. It’s neighbors, it’s ex-colleagues. It’s the milkman, it’s the postman. You know, it can be anybody who’s interacted with that person and the impact it has on them can be quite significant.
The other aspect here is around people who have been bereaved by suicide, and very sadly, if you have been bereaved by suicide, particularly if it is in your immediate family, you are then also at risk of taking your own life. And there are some horrible statistics that I don’t know off the top of my head, that demonstrate that. And look, again, if I’m being completely honest and transparent with you, I’ve got a memory of when we lost Josh, and I think it was probably around two weeks after he’d taken his life. I remember being stood in my parents’ living room with them both. I begged them to do the same with me because I just could not see how I was going to get over this. It just wasn’t possible for me to move on from that. I begged them both to do the same with me. And actually, it was my dad that spoke to me and my mom and said, no, we’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to make a pact, and we’ve got to get through this. And we’ve stuck with that pact and, and we are all still here, but I totally, totally get why people who are bereaved by suicide are also at risk and unfortunately are very likely to go on and take their own lives as a result of their experience.
John Robb
So, your R;pple does ripple to help other people. If you prevent someone or direct somebody somewhere else, not only are you saving their life, but all of the people that are impacted by the potential loss of their life exactly. It does ripple far and wide to make things better. I have a personal story. A very close friend of mine, his partner’s daughter, committed suicide and then three days later she did also.
Alice Hendy
Yeah.
John Robb
I’ve seen this in practice where when it happens, it’s very hard to move forward. It’s very, very hard. You’ve experienced it personally. You know, there is the expression, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s what you are doing is that prevention. Your tool is saving those lives by getting them to breathe, which I thought was phenomenal. Like just a simple step. Just breathe. That pause is sometimes enough to move them in a different direction.
Alice Hendy
Yeah, exactly that.
John Robb
Now not everybody’s ready to talk to a helpline. What are some of the alternatives, first steps that someone can take and still move them towards safety and support without sort of feeling overwhelmed?
Alice Hendy
So, again, from a personal perspective, Josh, I mentioned earlier, was 21 when he took his life, and I was lucky if I received a grunt from Josh over the telephone, let alone expecting him to phone up a helpline and speak to a complete stranger about how he’s really feeling and his deepest and darkest thoughts.
It’s just not realistic and it would never have happened and it didn’t. What we’re finding and what we’re seeing is young people in particular, and also men in particular much prefer other methods of getting support for what they’re going through. Perhaps more subtle methods that don’t require them to openly talk. What I mean by that is, you know, these help lines are great and for a lot of people they come in very, very handy. But there’s also a range of other support services out there. There are text lines, there’s web chat facilities, there’s apps that you can download to get support. You could go to face-to-face support groups and actually speak directly and sit next to somebody who might be going through something similar to you.
However, you would like to get mental health support is okay. It’s just encouraging you to get it, and what we do at R;pple is bring all of those options together to give people a choice of what resonates the most with them and it works.
John Robb
It’s definitely inspiring, Alice. I’m always encouraged every time we talk about R;pple, Netsweeper is part of your solution for those Wi-Fi implementations, it’s always just inspiring. That’s the only word I can sort of say for it. Looking ahead, what’s next for R;pple as an organization are you doing something more? Is it tools, outreach? What is something that you’re looking forward to going forward?
Alice Hendy
So, one of the things that I am really keen to do is to collaborate with OpenAI in particular, we’ve seen over the last year the rise of chat, GPT, chatbots, artificial intelligence, and unfortunately, the way in which people are now getting information has changed. It’s not necessarily just over browsers and going on the internet anymore. It can be through other means, and so I’d like us to move in that direction as well and to evolve so that we are also interrupting and intercepting harmful searches that are being conducted in other ways.
Outside of the browser. The other aspect, which is a new development that we’ve only launched over the last couple of weeks, which I’m really proud of and proud of the team for, is we’ve expanded our capabilities so that we’re also now interrupting searches to do with a range of other mental health conditions and life challenges.
What I mean by that is gambling, addictions, substance misuse, alcohol abuse, financial wellbeing, eating disorders. Now, that’s not to say that we’ve become a charity that specializes in those areas. We are not. But all of those areas come with an increased risk in that person going on to experience suicidal thoughts as a result of, of what they’re going through. So, what we are doing is interrupting people at an earlier stage in their journey, getting them and signposting them to the bespoke support that they need for what they’re going through in the hope. That it prevents them from actually going on to experience suicidal thoughts later down the line. So that’s a life-saving development that we are yet to see the results of. But I’m pretty confident that in a few months’ time, we would’ve had a number of triggers of R;pple, where we’ve got people bespoke support before self-harm and suicide related searches are conducted.
John Robb
Those other problems are precursors to the suicide ideation.
Alice Hendy
Yes.
John Robb
So, if somebody’s struggling with the gambling addiction and they’re spiraling downwards, sometimes they feel there’s only one way out. And if you can help them with the gambling piece, the anticipation is that that would help them never get to that crisis where they thought about doing something more drastic.
Alice Hendy
Yeah.
John Robb
You are very heavily organized in the UK. Are you looking to globalize this and take it further than the UK?
Alice Hendy
So, we’re in 50 countries and territories around the world, and R;pple is available now in 14 different languages. In particular though, we’d like to gain more traction in the US, in Canada and in Australia, which is our target at the moment. Again, it’s completely free for schools. It’s free for colleges, it’s free for universities, it’s free for other charities. It’s free for parents to download at home to safeguard their kids.
We are trying to get the word out as much as we possibly can. We’ve done it in the UK. There are not many people who work in mental health now in the UK that haven’t heard of R;pple, and I’d like to see that happen in those countries going forward.
John Robb
I think that everywhere needs what it is that you’re doing. We deal with this subject matter often enough that we know it’s at a crisis level, especially amongst youth. It’s just so frightening what the numbers are that globally it’s the third leading cause of death in youth. I don’t know that it’s 100% preventable but it’s certainly something that we can do a lot to reduce if we put our combined efforts together to make things better.
The information you provided today has been fantastic. We definitely want good things for R;pple. If someone is listening right now and they’re in a dark place, they’re not sure if they can keep going, what’s the one thing you want them to hear today, that can give them hope going forward.
Alice Hendy
I would say whatever it is that’s making you feel how you are feeling at the moment, there is always, always a solution to it and it isn’t suicide. If you are in debt, there are loads of amazing support services out there to get you out of what you’re going through, however hard that must be at the moment, and however deep of a financial crisis you are. In the same way with substance abuse, the same with work. If work isn’t going well at the moment and is making you feel so desperately low that you’re thinking of suicide, there’s a way out of that. Anything that you’re going through, there is a solution and please utilize the people around you that love you. It could be friends, it could be family, it could be neighbors, it could be somebody you’ve met on the internet, whoever it is. Talk to them. Open up, be honest about how you’re feeling, and you’ll often find that a huge weight has been lifted from you, and they can help you get out of whatever it is you are, you’re feeling at the moment.
There’s always, always hope.
John Robb
Alice, thank you very much for sharing not just your story behind R;pple, but your insights, compassion, the practical ways that we can all do a small part to help prevent suicide. It’s a reminder sometimes, that just those small things; a question, a listening ear, a signpost can make a big difference for people listening.
You can learn more about https://www.ripplesuicideprevention.com/ We’ll link to the resources in the show notes. If you found today’s episode valuable, please share it. You never know who might need to hear what it is that we’re talking about today. Once again, Alice, thank you very much for taking the time with us. We really appreciate it.
Alice Hendy
Thanks, John.
The Future of Suicide Prevention Technology: Always Hope with R;pple
As Alice Hendy reminds us, there is always hope—and with tools like R;pple, that hope is turning into real action. By combining human compassion with innovative suicide prevention technology, R;pple is saving lives at the very moment support is needed most. Whether it’s through browser extensions, Wi-Fi integrations, or expanding into AI-driven digital solutions, the mission is clear: to prevent suicide and connect people with the help they deserve. If you or someone you know is struggling, remember—you are not alone, and resources are always available.
Learn more about R;pple at ripplesuicideprevention.com and explore Netsweeper’s digital safeguarding solutions at netsweeper.com.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Inside the Sweep podcast and share this episode—because you never know who might need to hear it today