Formed by Chad Varah at St Stephen Walbrook Church to befriend the suicidal and despairing.
The Samaritans gives a good history of the organisation including how it was named: "Chad Varah had achieved a lot of publicity for the service by telling his newspaper contacts about the new service and The Daily Mirror gave it a name which was quickly adopted by other media and the public. On December 7th, 1953, it coined the term, "Telephone Good Samaritans" and although Samaritans is not a religious organisation, the name has stuck and become synonymous with the idea of people being there for others in emotional distress."
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