My poor boy would still be alive if it weren’t for lockdown, says tragic mother
‘There was no note or anything’
A HEARTBROKEN mother told yesterday how she found her 14-year- old son hanged during lockdown after he felt ‘isolated’ because he could not go out with his friends.
Tracey Tyler believes sport-loving Sam, the eldest of her three sons, would still be alive if school hadn’t been cancelled, leaving him without a normal routine.
The healthcare support worker said Sam had been ‘laughing and joking’ while playing online games with friends when she left home for a shift on a hospital coronavirus ward in May.
But when she returned she found the schoolboy dead upstairs.
Four months on, Mrs Tyler, 40, has shared Sam’s devastating story in the hope it could save other children’s lives. She is urging parents to ‘ask the awkward questions’ as she believes that a five-minute conversation with their children could be enough to save some from suicide.
The mother- of-three, from Bedworth, Warwickshire, is also hoping the Government will not impose a second national lockdown to spare children from further suffering.
Mrs Tyler, who is separated from the father of her children Sam, Nathan, 11, and Daniel, nine, said her eldest son had felt ‘isolated’ Tyler had taken an extra shift during the lockdown, to help out during the coronavirus but had been making plans to pandemic. go fishing with friends when She added: ‘Sam was a goodlooking restrictions were eased. lad, he was really popular,
When she left home on the he had no school worries, night of Sam’s death, he was he had a lovely girlfriend. talking to friends about booking ‘If you were a 14-year- old a coach trip to the seaside lad, you’d want to be him. He after lockdown. loved sports. He had everything
Mrs Tyler said: ‘That’s what he wanted. That’s what’s they were talking about. He so hard.’ just said [to them], “I’ll be She said: ‘ You would never back in two seconds”, then think he would do this. never went back online. ‘Knowing my child has chosen
‘I do believe if he’d been at to end his life, without school, in a routine, it wouldn’t leaving us any explanation, is have happened. hard. It’s tough.
‘The only thing that changed ‘There was no note or anything. was he was awake all night It’s like you’re on autopilot. playing games, sleeping all My heart is broken. day – like all the kids were.’ ‘I just want people to realise
Her younger children were even if your child is happy and staying with their father on you just think, “Oh, they’re a the night Sam died and Mrs bit hormonal because they’re teenagers”, just ask. An uncomfortable five-minute conversation could save them. I wish I’d done that with Sam.
‘If I’d just asked him, I think he’d have told me. I thought him being moody was down to being a teenager.’
She is now campaigning to improve mental health education in schools – but says open discussions should also take place at home.
She said: ‘You don’t want to think you’re putting that seed into their brains but the way the world is now, they’re experiencing so much more now than we did when we were young. I think kids don’t want to upset their parents by telling them they feel this way. If the parents just ask it breaks that barrier down.’
Ged Flynn, chief executive of PAPYRUS, the UK charity for the prevention of suicide in young people, said: ‘ For many parents, suicide is the unspoken dread.
‘Talking to your child about suicidal thoughts can be very difficult and can feel very daunting but starting the conversation is the most important thing.’
Warwickshire coroner’s office said no date had yet been set for an inquest into Sam’s death.
‘Ask awkward questions’