The inquest revealed that she was “too proud” to share her financial struggles with her family, choosing to live off her savings. When those savings ran out, and she was down to just $6, she took the heartbreaking decision to jump into a 40-foot quarry. And Martin John Counter, 60, took his own life after being wrongly accused of benefit fraud.
Phillip’s final months paint a portrait of a man doing everything he could to hold on— for his children, for his sanity, for a life that was being pulled out from under him.
Sadly, he felt that the bureaucracy ignored him, and it became fatal. Finally, his devastated mother, Sheena, has a plea for the British authorities:
“If this doesn’t change,” she said, “he won’t be the last.”