**Trigger warning: This article contains details of suicide**
A grieving woman has opened up about the ‘devastating loss’ of her husband who took his own life in the same park where he proposed to her.
Craig Murray, 41, was found hanged at Etherow Country Park in Stockport, Greater Manchester in May 2020.
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It was the same park where he popped to the question to his wife Jade, 39.
Two years after his death, Jade has paid tribute to her late husband, saying that she continues to struggle with coming to terms with his passing.
“It’s more than two years since I lost Craig and it’s still incredibly difficult to come to terms with the fact he’s no longer here,” she said.
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The couple had only been married for 18 months when he died. “Craig’s mental illness was putting a strain on our relationship, but I believe that with the correct treatment Craig would have recovered and we would have spent the rest of our lives together.”
She added: “It devastates me that this won’t happen.”
An inquest into his death was held in December 2020 which revealed that on 18 May, Craig informed his mental health coordinator that he had ‘thought about’ taking his life that week.
Craig’s case should have been elevated to a ‘red’ category which would have likely led to a revaluation.
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Instead, his case remained at ‘amber’ and an agreement was made for the team to speak to Craig twice a week over the phone, including a call on 21 May.
Although the scheduled call did not go ahead, an attempt was made to contact him on the phone the next day, 22 May however he was not in.
Jade has now instructed medical negligence experts at Irwin Mitchell to investigate her husband’s care under the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust.
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Jade added: “When his mental health began to deteriorate, he began thinking he was in danger and that people were following him.
"He moved in with his mum just before lockdown as he kept saying he thought I was also in danger and that our home security was being hacked.
"It was awful and I kept pleading with him not to do anything stupid. When he was found in the park, my emotions were all over the place.
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"It was such a special location for us as that’s where we got engaged.
"To this day, I still have so many questions over Craig’s death and whether more could have been done to help him."
Jade hopes people are encouraged to seek treatment if they are struggling.
Margaret Ryan, the specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing Jade, said: “Sadly, the inquest into Craig’s death highlighted issues in the care provided to him in the lead up to his death.
"We’re now investigating this and will continue to support Jade however we can.”
A spokesperson for Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust said: "Our deepest sympathies are with Craig Murray’s family. Our own investigation supported the findings of the coroner. The covid pandemic meant that we had to rapidly change the way our teams worked and we accepted that a lack of face-to-face contact was a missed opportunity to reassess Mr Murray. We are very sorry this did not happen.”
Contact mind.org.uk for mental health support. If you have been affected by this story or struggling in any way call Samaritans for free on 116 123, visit samaritans.org - or write down your thoughts in an email to [email protected]
Gregory Robinson