A former company PA took a fatal overdose after she struggled to get a job for seven months because she did not have ‘the relevant experience.’
Louise Turnbull, 37, worked in administration for 14 years but was unable to find a new job after taking voluntary redundancy, despite registering with recruitment agencies, replying to newspaper advertisements and trawling through online job pages.
An inquest heard she managed to get interviews at an insurance company and in the pharmaceutical industry but lost out to other candidates.
The hearing in Warrington, Cheshire was told she found it ‘very hard’ not being able to find another position.
Louise Turnbull (pictured) was ‘excellent’ at her PA job, but took voluntary redundancy in 2014. She started to suffer from anxiety and seemed ‘quiet and reserved’ before her death
Miss Turnbull had previously worked for pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca and helped organise international conferences for 100 people.
She was found dead at her home in Middlewich, Cheshire, on April 19 after her father and sister visisted her first floor flat.
Cheshire County Coroner’s Court was told the 37-year-old had ‘very good organisational skills’ at work, always got good appraisals and healthy bonus payments.
But in 2007 she started to suffer from anxiety, excessively worrying all the time. She was later diagnosed with depression.
Her father Francis John Turnbull, 74, a company director said: ‘Louise worked in various admin roles and finally got a job with a pharmaceutical company from 2002 to 2014 when she took voluntary redundancy.
He said she started out as an admin assistant and worked her way up to becoming PA.
He continued: ‘During August or September 2007 Louise started to realise she needed some help.
She seemed anxious about things she wouldn’t normally seem anxious about.
We persuaded her to have a word with the GP to see if she would benefit from third party help and she was referred to the Priory for counselling.
‘She took voluntary redundancy in 2014, when the company went through numerous downsizings and the security of employment she enjoyed was very much in doubt.
Miss Turnbull worked for a pharmaceutical giant for 14 years. She was a ‘very kind and good person’ her father said at the hearing
‘The morale around the office was not very high so she decided to take the offer of redundancy.
‘She had some time away from work but went back to the same company on a contractual basis.
‘She had that renewed but it was not renewed in October 2016 and at that point Louise became unemployed.’
He praised his daughter’s professional skills saying she was ‘excellent at her job’.
He said: ‘Even when her contract was not renewed in October 2016 she was still paid what they called a good leavers bonus.
‘She lost that job simply because of reducing the staff again.
‘The fact that she was unemployed was very much playing on her mind.
‘She made a lot of effort to find work, she went to the Job Centre on a fortnightly basis at Crewe, she got herself registered with one or two different agencies, replied to advertisements in the paper, trawled online pages looking for work.
The inquest into Miss Turnbull’s death took place at the Coroner’s Court for the County of Cheshire (pictured)
‘She did get some interviews and on to a couple of short lists but lost out for simply not having relevant experience.
‘She found it very hard knowing she was good but not being able to find another position.
‘That was very much playing on her mind and the last time we saw Louise she was rather quiet and reserved and thoughtful.’
Mr Turnbull continued by saying his daughter had ‘lots of friends’ and was ‘very popular’.
He said: ‘When she died there were flowers outside her flat all with messages on saying how much she would be missed.
‘She seemed to bring a smile to every bodies face. She was somebody who brought laughter and smiles and made the world a better place.
‘She was a very good person and she was a kind person.
‘She brought happiness to lots of people including her family. We don’t believe that Louise deliberately ended her own life.
‘She knew that we loved her very much and we knew that she loved us very much.
‘We don’t think she would have done anything like this on purpose, we believe this was just a tragic accident.’
Miss Turnbull’s brother Michael, 36, who lives in New York, said his sister had failed to remember how many tablets she had taken for her anxiety before and added: ‘I believe if she had intended to harm herself there were way more paracetamols in the flat and she chose not to do that.
‘Louise was in the habit of writing everything down but there was no note found at the scene and there were notes about all sorts of things but no notes about this.’
Assistant coroner Jean Harkin concluded Miss Turnbull died by misadventure.
She said: ‘A person as methodical as Louise you may think would leave a note but despite there being many hand written notes around her flat there was no notes of intent.
‘We have heard that Louise was a ray of sunshine, that is enforced by the popularity she had, the friends she knew and the tributes she received when she died.
‘Louise had taken the tablets but had not intended them to kill her.’
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