Cal Shearer
Age 25 (born 21 Mar 1999)30 Oct 2024
Oxford, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom)
Suicide

Cal died by suicide in the college where they were studying for a Neuroscience PhD. They were autistic, identified as nonbinary and volunteered with Oxford Nightline and the Samaritans.
Neuroscience PhD student Cale Shearer, 25, who was told to “radiate warmth to everyone around him,” was found [suicide method redacted] at the city's St John's College on October 30.
Caring Cal, who was autistic and transgender, volunteered to speak to callers on The Samaritans helpline, but personally struggled with [their] own mental health issues.
And Cal took [their] own life after his family fought for proper treatment for what his family described as a “suicidal crisis that is highly prevalent but still poorly understood among autistic people who identify as trans.”
Cal's final note, delivered to family and friends, read: 'I love you and I know how much I love you. I'm lucky to have so much love around me.
The tragedy comes a week after an inquest was held into fellow Oxford student Alexander Rogers, when the 20-year-old committed suicide in January after being ostracized by his social circle at Corpus Christi College in an episode described as “cultural shunning.”
A full inquest will be held on March 10 next year.
Cal's mother paid an emotional tribute to “our beautiful Cal” as she shared a series of happy family photos of her youngest [child] on social media.
[She] wrote: 'Our brave, beautiful, brilliantly intelligent, mischievously funny and endlessly compassionate Cal sadly lost their battle with mental health this week. Speechless.'
A student memorial page has already raised thousands of pounds for The Samaritans and Gender Intelligence, a trans-led charity working to improve gender diversity and the lives of trans people.
https://calshearer.muchloved.com/
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24729789.oxford-university-student-found-dead-tributes-pour/
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24710913.oxford-phd-students-cause-death-confirmed-inquest/