Nurse took her life after struggling with death of sister

HEARTBROKEN FAMILY TELL INQUEST THEIR FEARS 'WERE NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY'

- IMOGEN CLYDE-SMITH

A MENTAL health nurse tormented by her sister’s death was found dead at home following a stay at a psychiatric hospital, an inquest heard.

Natalie Cunliffe’s loved ones – devastated after her sibling took her own life – told a coroner their concerns were not ‘taken seriously’ by staff during her treatment.

Mum-of-two Ms Cunliffe, described as ‘beautiful inside and out’, was found hanged at her home in Tyldesley, Wigan, on February 6. She was 29.

An inquest into her death – attended by her parents, sibling and partner – at Bolton Coroners’ Court examined her care by mental health medics prior to her death.

Assistant coroner Alexander Frodsham heard Ms Cunliffe was adored by her two young daughters; was ‘loving’; and was ‘full of fun’. But her mother Sharon said she struggled.

She said her daughter saw friends having a ‘whale of a time’ on social media, while she was not. Ms Cunliffe’s mental health began to deteriorate, her mum said, when her elder sister took her own life in February last year.

Her sibling’s death, the court heard, was ‘incomprehensible’ and ‘came out of the blue’. Ms Cunliffe, the court heard, felt an ‘extra burden’ as she felt she could have ‘saved her’ because she was a mental health nurse.

Ms. Cunliffe’s mother said that was ‘completely wrong’ as nobody knew her sister was ‘in the place she was in’. The inquest heard Ms Cunliffe took time off work to grieve and to deal with her mental health battle.