I’ve been struggling with the world
BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG TRAGIC Love Island star Sophie Gradon took her own life while high on a cocktail of booze and cocaine.
Just hours earlier, she told a friend: “If I could escape, I would.”
An inquest heard the 32-year-old – who had battled mental health issues – spoke of how she had “been struggling with the world” in her final conversation.
And coroner Eric Armstrong warned research has shown mixing drink and cocaine makes people 16 times more likely to commit suicide.
He said: “If Sophie’s death is to serve any purpose, I think that message should go out far and wide.” Boyfriend Aaron BY RORY CASSIDY A QUICK-THINKING bus driver ushered kids out of a bus – just before it went up in flames.
About a dozen secondary school children were evacuated from the First Bus coach in Clydebank at 5pm yesterday. Fire crews tackled the blaze on Dumbarton Road.
It’s thought the driver’s swift actions resulted in no one being hurt.
One witness said: “We saw the bus pull in and the driver got the children off. He was shouting, ‘Move it’, then, just as the driver got clear, we could see the flames.”
First Glasgow said: “Our driver must be commended for his swift action that prevented any injuries.” Armstrong, 25, discovered Sophie’s body at her parents’ home in Ponteland, Newcastle, on June 20 last year.
The hearing was told Aaron – who took his own life 20 days later – tried to revive her, even though “she was cold and stiff and her arms had turned blue”. A post-mortem found 201mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood – about four times the Scottish drink-drive limit – and 0.4mg of cocaine per litre of blood, along with the anti-depressant Sertraline, which Sophie had been taking since 2013.
The inquest in North Shields, Tyneside, heard the last person she spoke to was friend Sonny Gill.
Det Sgt Nei l Jobling described Sophie, who was on Love Island in 2016 and worked in digital marketing, as being “in the public eye” and a high-profile figure due to her appearances on TV. He said in her final contact with Sonny she had said: “I can’t do this any more” and said she struggled with attention deficit disorder.
He added: “She then said, ‘I would never want to do this to my family but if I could escape, I would.’
“She also told him, ‘I have been struggling with the world, no one knows why or how’.”
Jobling said that by 2.40am on the morning she died, her speech was slurred and she was “repeating herself ”. Her last contact with Aaron had been at about 3am.