Mother plunged 100ft to her death from bridge in carbon copy of son's suicide

A MOTHER who worked as a lifeline counsellor for people in distress jumped to her death from the Humber Bridge in a carbon copy of her son's suicide on his birthday two months earlier.

Yvonne Brown plunged nearly 100ft into the same field on Hessle foreshore where her son Benjamin died.

A joint inquest into both deaths heard how the 59-year-old had described in her own words the impact of losing Benjamin, an only child.

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In a statement prepared for the coroner before she took her own life, she said: "We loved our son dearly. Nothing was too much trouble. What has happened has left us completely devastated.

"We would like Ben to be remembered as the person we knew; a bright and intelligent person, a popular and hard-working person loved by everyone who knew him."

In emotional evidence to Hull Coroner's Court, her widower Michael detailed how Benjamin's death had affected them.

"It changed us," he said. "From Yvonne being the strong one where I have always been weak, we really just altered.

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"I had to try to be as strong as I could for Yvonne, whether or not it was good enough I don't think it was.

"Yvonne used to say to me, 'When will the old Yvonne come back?' I couldn't answer it, I was grieving for my son the same as she was.

"Yvonne used to say to me that if people who did this knew what they did to the ones that was left they would never do it, but it didn't work out that way."

Like Benjamin, Mrs Brown had visited the bridge before the day she jumped, and discussed this with her husband.

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Mr Brown said: "I said if you want to do that we'll do it together, not on your own, but of course my wife is, or was, the sort of woman where if she wanted to do something she would do it."

He had asked his wife to consider giving up her work as a counsellor for the Samaritans after their son's suicide, but she wanted to carry on.

"She was a Samaritan," he said. "It's the old case like with physicians – heal thyself. I used to say don't you think you've got enough things?

"She said: 'There might be

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