Harrowing last text of tragic mum
MOTHER-OF-TWO’S HARROWING MESSAGE TO BOYFRIEND MINUTES BEFORE SHE KILLED HERSELF
A YOUNG mum-of-two hanged herself just minutes after she sent a harrowing eight-minute video message to her Royal Marine boyfriend explaining why she was giving up her battle against her ‘demon’ depression.
Amie Collier, 33, said it would be unlikely her loved ones would ever be able to understand the full extent of her illness.
She accompanied the heartbreaking video with a text to Anthony Clay saying: “Please forgive me for leaving my children. Tell them I love them so much but that mummy’s head got too sad.
“Please make sure they are well looked after and my mum is kept safe and well.”
Mr Clay, who was shopping with the couple’s young daughter for a suit and swimwear for Miss Collier, raced home after seeing the text but his partner, a PR executive for a recruitment firm, had already hanged herself.
She was taken to hospital but she died six days later. It emerged the video, which had a large file size, only arrived on his phone after he made the tragic discovery on July 16 this year.
At an inquest in Bolton, Mr Clay wept as the video message was read out by a coroner.
In it Miss Collier, from Wigan, said that people would struggle to understand what dealing with depression is like.
The hearing was also told Miss Collier had been grieving over the death of her stepfather, named only as Graham. She had been getting counselling via the Marines but was drinking heavily at home.
Mr Clay told the hearing: “We had spoken about numerous things that have happened over the course of time. Sometimes it was very much a case of she put a face on for the world. Everywhere she would go, she would be the heart and the soul of the party. She was the star who walked in the room but I knew from living alongside her that smile wasn’t always the case.” He added: “I had a conversation with her father in France and he said when Amie went to visit him there was a woman who suffered with postnatal depression herself. From that she had a conversation with Amie and that when she got back to the UK she needed to pursue the avenues to have that looked into. “She had researched what to do and to go and speak to someone – but when she spoke sometimes she was just her strong self. I didn’t feel by looking at her that anything like that was an issue.”
Mr Clay said Amie told him she hadn’t realised how close she had been to her stepfather Graham.
He said: “She said Graham was always there and he would always help her. She said he was always on hand like the father figure. I didn’t realise how Graham’s passing would affect her.
“As soon as I got back Amie said ‘will you just take our daughter out for a bit’ and that she just wanted a minute to herself. I thought it was fair enough as she worked full time and looked after the kids as well. The next day we were in Superdry at the Trafford Centre when I got the text from Amie.
“I bundled my daughter under my arm got in the car and went back. It is supposed to take 40 minutes I think I got back in about 25. I phoned my dad as I thought that would be the quickest means to get back to the house.
“The keys were in the door when we got back and my daughter was just following me as I went round into the back garden. I rang the police as my thoughts were she’s not in the house. My Marine training in terms of preservation of life kicked in and I did CPR on Amie.”
A statement from an unnamed GP said Miss Collier had attended the surgery in relation to anxiety and low mood on four occasions and was prescribed anti-depressants. On July 1 she had an appointment in which she indicating that she was having some thoughts of self-harm but she ‘wouldn’t’ do it as the children were a protecting factor. She was due to visit his father in France and even had her bags packed.
Recording a conclusion of suicide, coroner Catherine Cundy said: “I’m satisfied that her video message indicated that events going back many years had led to her depression with which she felt she could no longer cope.’’
She was the star but I knew from living alongside her that smile wasn’t always the case
Anthony Clay