A teenager who helped put together the borough’s youth magazine has spoken of how it helped to save her life and called for it to be salvaged.

Amy Feltham, 17, was one of the teens left reeling by Richmond Council’s announcement the July edition of Outskirts magazine would be the last.

Amy, of Ormond Drive, Hampton, said the team working on the magazine were very disappointed by the news and she had particular reason to be upset.

She said: “[Working on Outskirts] has been amazing for me. I know what it can do for lots of young people.

“It’s really sad others won’t be able to experience it.

“Without Outskirts I could have been using drugs, alcohol or I might have succeeded in killing myself. In some regards, Outskirts saved my life.”

Amy, a former pupil at Waldegrave School for Girls, has suffered from mental health difficulties for more than four years and at the age of 14 was admitted to a psychiatric unit after “several suicide attempts”.

She was there for three months and, soon after coming out, joined the team that produced Outskirts.

She said: “I thought it was something to fill up my time. I didn’t realise what an impact it would have.

“It was always there, at no point did anyone say I couldn’t do anything or my opinions were not valid.

“I felt ostracised in a lot of things I was doing. This was somewhere I wasn’t ever ostracised.

“I’m not completely better but I’m not as bad as I could have been.”

The closure of Outskirts is expected to save the council £36,000 a year and comes soon after the announcement Arcadia – the council’s glossy magazine – would cease production, a move which is set to save £75,000 a year.

Councillor Stephen Knight, leader of Richmond Liberal Democrats, has launched a campaign to save the magazine and a group has been set up on social networking site Facebook which has more than 200 members.

Amy, who is now working at a nursery, said the team that produces the magazine have switched their attention to saving it.

She said: “We are looking at different options to get funding.

“We are protesting against the decision but understand the council has other things money needs to be spent on.

“We are looking to get registered charitable status and are considering charging 50p for every issue.

“And if all else fails we will just blog.”