The widow of a war veteran who took his own life due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) broke down on This Morning as she recalled how much her husband loved their children.
Mother-of-two Alicia Davis, from Christchurch, Hampshire struggled to fight back tears as she recalled how her husband Jamie, 30, suffered from PTSD which grew progressively worse over the years, leading him to take his own life in early January.
Jamie served in the 4 Rifles Battalion in Afghanistan from the age of 19, and experienced crippling PTSD after three majors incidents left him a changed man.
Speaking to Phillip Schofield and Holly WIlloughby on This Morning, Alicia fought back tears as she remembered her husband as a ‘teddy bear’ and doting father, and called for greater support for veterans.
Mother-of-two Alicia Davis, from Hampshire struggled to fight back tears as she recalled how her husband Jamie, PTSD grew from bad to worse and let him to take his own life in early January, after fighting it for years
Jamie was found dead in early January 2020 and was believed to have taken his own life after suffering from PTSD for years (pictured with Alicia)
The mother-of-two cried as she explained that she never thought Jamie would leave her, because their children ‘were his everything.’
‘If you’d speak to people, if you’d met him for five minutes, his boys everything to him and he always said he could never do that to them because it would…,’
The mother paused, fighting back tears. Phillip Schofield leaned in to hold her hand, in a show of sympathy.
‘He just said it was selfish because then he’d leave a world of hurt. So for him to do that meant he must have been hurting so much,’ she said.
Jamie served in the 4 Rifles battalion during the war in Afghanistan, and witnessed his friends being shot and killed, which left him a changed man
‘He wasn’t that sort of man. 400 people turned up at his wake. They all said he was the last person ever they would have thought would do that,’ she added.
She went on to compare Jamie to the actor Robin Williams, who took his own life in 2014, saying Jamie ‘always put his pain to the back, it would always be everybody first’.
Alicia explained Jamie was a Valley man, meaning he would be the first in line of fire, scanning the ground for explosive devices.
She explained three incidents during his service worsened his PTSD, which she had come to understand by listening to his screams as he experienced nightmares.
Alicia fought back tears as she said she never thought Jamie would take his own life, and that it showed how desperate he must have felt
Jamie had been present when one of his close friends had been blown up by a blast, and had found him without either of his legs.
In 2010, the veteran was deeply impacted by the death of a fellow army man who had been shot and killed while replacing him during one of his authorised breaks from duty.
Once back on the force, Jamie was later shot at and hit in the knee and the buttocks by shrapnel from the bullet.
Speaking on This Morning, Alicia said her husband came back from the war a changed man, and struggled to find the help he needed.
Holding Phillip Schofield’s hand, the mother-of-two chocked as she said her husband lived for their children
Alicia is calling for more support for veterans suffering from PTSD, as she said not enough was being done to help them cope
She revealed that after denying he was having issues for some time, Jamie reached out by calling a helpline, but was told to look for other solutions on Google.
Suffering from dyslexia and struggling to find the information he needed, Jamie felt disheartened.
‘He thought: “What’s the point? I need help and nobody’s there to help me”,’ Alicia said.
Jamie’s PTSD worsened over the years because he was not getting the counselling he needed.
‘He would really be very nervous, would keep his back to walls if we went anywhere,’ Alicia said.
She added Jamie was ‘an absolute mess’ whenever he would hear firecrackers, and that his PTSD would be set off by fire and car alarms.
She admitted that for a number of years, Jamie was reluctant to say he suffered from PTSD because it would have kept him from moving forward in his career, but did not receive the help he deserved when he was finally ready to reach out.
For this reason, Alicia hopes to raise awareness to bring help for the men and women suffering from PTSD right now.
For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see https://www.samaritans.org for details.