Inquest: Cambridge student died by suicide after struggles with mental health
The coroner said the “support offered by the university was appropriate and suitable”
Last updated 16th Mar 2023
An “extremely bright” Cambridge University student died by suicide after struggling with her mental health for years, an inquest has concluded.
Experienced music industry executive Yasmin Lajoie, 34, had returned to education to study for a degree in human, social and political sciences as a mature student at Cambridge’s Hughes Hall.
Elizabeth Gray, area coroner for Cambridgeshire, told an inquest in Peterborough that Ms Lajoie had previously been sectioned, had struggled with cocaine addiction and had a personality disorder.
She said that Ms Lajoie had previously tried to take her own life and had been experiencing medical issues relating to blood count and platelet levels.
Ms Gray said that Ms Lajoie was found in her student accommodation in the early hours of May 25, 2022 after mental health services contacted her university college to request a welfare check.
They did so after Ms Lajoie said, in a telephone call, that she was going to take her own life and she hung up the phone.
Her medical cause of death was recorded as hanging.
Coroner Ms Gray said a friend of Ms Lajoie had died by suicide “a very short time beforehand”.
She said Ms Lajoie had told her GP she “felt supported by her university”.
She said the “support offered by the university was appropriate and suitable”.
Ms Lajoie’s brother told the hearing: “She got all the support she could have asked for from the uni and everybody in her life – it’s one of those things.”
Ms Gray said Ms Lajoie “initially had concerns about friendship groups, being a mature student, but then found a friendship group”.
The coroner recorded that Ms Lajoie died by suicide.
She was described, in a report from her director of studies that was read by the coroner, as “extremely bright”.
Addressing relatives who attended the hearing, both in person and remotely, the coroner said: “It’s absolutely clear what love and devotion and support she had from her family.
“She clearly had great difficulties in her life in terms of her mental health, but this was a person who shone through to me who started really tough studies later in life and wanted to make a success of it.”
Ms Gray said it seemed like attending Cambridge University “had been a dream of hers for some time” and she invited relatives to remember “the really happy times”.
Dr Tori McKee, senior tutor, said: “Yasmin Lajoie embraced the diversity and vibrant way of life at Hughes Hall, along with the many opportunities on offer at Cambridge.
“Her tragic death came as a great shock to our community, and she is greatly missed by all who knew her.
“Our thoughts remain with Yasmin’s friends and family.”