England cricket icon Graham Thorpe pleaded with his wife to help him end his life in a Swiss clinic just days before being hit by a train, an inquest has heard. Thorpe ended his own life in August 2024 after an agonising battle with mental health issues.
The Surrey-born ace, who in 2006 was awarded an MBE for his services to cricket, joined the England coaching team following his retirement in 2013 and remained with the ECB until 2022. He was among those let go by the ECB following a 4-0 defeat down under during the 2021-22 Ashes series.
Thorpe had been admitted to intensive care following a suicide attempt in May 2022, and struggled with depression and anxiety thereafter. Last year his body was found on the tracks at Esher railway station following reports of a casualty on the tracks, with it later confirmed the much-loved cricket star had taken his own life.
Speaking at an inquest into his death, his wife Amanda said: “The weeks leading up to his death, he told me he doesn’t want to be here any more. He asked me to help him end his life. He said he wants to go to Switzerland. I was in turmoil.”
She went on to explain that Thorpe had found lockdown “difficult” and “stressful”. His father, Geoff, backed the statement up, saying: “Everything was fine until Covid,” adding his son wasn’t a “fella who likes to be cooped up.”
On his battles with mental health, Amanda said: “He never really recovered from [his first suicide] attempt. He came back from the tour of Australia in a terrible state… To be sacked after that, I think it was foreseeable that it would be really really hard on him.”
Assistant coroner Jonathan Stevens told the court: “Things continued to go downhill, he was really struggling, had anxiety and insomnia and it was all really dark.” Adding that by June 2024 Thorpe had made repeated threats to kill himself and had lost interest in food.
Speaking shortly after his death, Amanda told The Times: “Graham was renowned as someone who was very mentally strong on the field and he was in good physical health. But mental illness is a real disease and can affect anyone. Despite having a wife and two daughters whom he loved and who loved him, he did not get better. He was so unwell in recent times and he really did believe that we would be better off without him and we are devastated that he acted on that and took his own life.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, please visit the Samaritans website or call them for free on 116123.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk