MILITARY IS ROCKED BY ONE SUICIDE A WEEK MOD will only deal with PTSD in forces if Prince Harry gets it Widow’s inquiry call after sniper kills himself

guilt. He had lost friends in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least three of his friends have also committed suicide.” Jamie, from South Lanarkshire, took his life two weeks ago while his wife and their son Archie, six, and one year old daughter Eilidh were visiting her family in Devon. Samantha, 33, said: “Jamie seemed to be in a very good mood that weekend. He had been to the racing, had watched Rangers play. “I spoke to him and there no signs that anything was wrong but something happened because he died the following day.

“He called the police and the ambulance to tell them that he was going to commit suicide. He did that so that they would find him and no one else.

“We are all devastated. But I have to carry on for the children. My youngest doesn’t understand, she’s too young. But Archie knows his father has died.” Samantha is backing the Sunday People’s Save Our Soldiers campaign, which calls for an overhaul of how PTSD is treated. She believes the MOD was just dumping the problem on charities and the NHS. “The NHS doesn’t have psychiatric nurses who are equipped to deal with veterans,” she said. “Most veterans with PTSD will open up only to a nurse who has some experience of what soldiers have been through. After Jamie first tried to commit suicide we had a visit from a psychiatric nurse who was here barely long enough for the kettle to boil.

“He came in and said, ‘How are you feeling? and then left. It was a joke.” Samantha, now a charity admin worker, met Jamie when they were both serving in Iraq and they married in 2009.

She left the Army in 2011 to start a family. He left two years later and eventually got a job as a nursing assistant in a secure hospital. After he was diagnosed with PTSD he set up a Facebook page called Out of Sight, Out of Mind to post videos of him speaking about his struggles. In one blog he said: “I can feel myself really crying in hysterics How many inside. But there’s nothing coming out.” will die before you A government spokesman said: “The admit there is a MOD has increased its problem? spending on mental health to £22million a year, set up a 24/7 Military Mental Health Helpline and continues to tackle any perceived stigma around mental health issues.”