handwritten note against the bedroom door of Mark's younger brother: 'Sorry bro - look after Mum and Dad.' Half an hour later the police found him in the car with a pipe from the exhaust to the window. 'We were astounded. We knew he was upset about a university project, but we had no idea he was that ill.' said his mother. 'He was a perfectionist and did keep things to himself. He hadn't spoken to anyone about being desperately distressed.' Simon Armson, chief executive of the Samaritans, said that this refusal to talk about problems is a key reason why men are more likely to kill themselves than women. 'They are more likely to internalise feelings until it gets too big a burden to bear, and thenin suicide among men is a result of their loss of a role in society. Dale Peters, a market trader selling plants and flowers, hanged himself at 25 after splitting up with his girlfriend. 'He found it difficult to see where he was going. He was ticking over with a small business, but he wasn't doing particularly well - he didn't see a future for himself,' said his father, John Peters, who teaches psychology and works for the self-help group Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. 'Many men have expectations they should be providers, and for a small percentage they don't live up to it.' Males are falling behind females at school and university. The loss of unskilled jobs has hit men with few educational qualifications particularly hard. 'Young