Family touched by tragedy

Today a family touched by tragedy have opened up about their ordeal in a bid to put the spotlight on mental health issues.

Earlier this month, Wearside dad Lee Downey went missing.

His family – including mum Lynn Metcalf, partner Adele Gale, stepson Bailey, 14, and four-yearold daughter Millie – faced an agonising wait for news as the police searched for the 35-year-old.

Sadly, days later Lee’s body was found on Seaham beach.

His loved ones were left devastated by his death and have chosen to speak out about their ‘gentle giant’ and his struggle with depression and psychosis.

The family say Lee had been suffering from depression, and then things turned worse when he began hearing voices. They say he was diagnosed with psychosis earlier this year.

Lee’s sister Jodi Metcalf said her brother was in a terrible state of mind, hearing voices all the time and felt like everyone was plotting against him.

She said: “It must be terrible to be suffering like that, and initially we didn’t know where to turn.”

They believe Lee had been suffering for a lot longer than they knew and didn’t want to burden his family.

Now they are speaking out aboutthetragiccircumstances surrounding his death.

Mum Lynn is determined that people with mental health problems should not suffer in silence.

She said: “We just want to raise awareness of mental health. If it can save one life and one family from going through what we are, then that would be great”.

We applaud the family’s courage for speaking out at such a painful time and we hope their actions will help raise awareness of mental health issues.