Essex mum still fighting for answers 10 years after her son's death
Melanie Leahy is calling for a statutory public inquiry into Essex mental health services
A decade on from the death of her son, an Essex mum is continuing her calls for a public inquiry into local mental health services.
Matthew Leahy was 20 when he died just seven days after being admitted for care in Essex.
The local NHS Trust was later fined 1.5 million pounds over its failure to "prevent suicide" on a number of occasions.
Since his death, Matthew's mum, Melanie Leahy has consistently asked for answers - she's been calling for a statutory public inquiry into Essex mental health services for ten years.
Melanie said: “It’s been a hellish journey to get any semblance of truth as to what happened to my son. I think any mother with a son who dies in such horrific circumstances would want the truth.”
Throughout the years, Melanie's connected with other families who also feel let down by the mental health care services in Essex.
Just last month, Melanie joined thousands of other protestors to march on Downing Street demanding an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
Melanie said: “I hand delivered a letter to him and I've had no response. I think he owes it to the nation to give a response.
“We do not want a public enquiry that spreads across the nation. Individual trusts are failing in their own merits, so they need to be investigated individually.
“If Rishi Sunak wants to do something about the mental health in this country, he needs to call a statutory public inquiry into Essex mental health services now!”
Melanie says she feels as though she's repeatedly hitting a brick wall with her fight: “I get my down days where I just think I must walk away from this fight because it’s killing me.
"Then another family reaches out, say they’ve lost their son, and I’m right back in it.
“I have to help them."
She wants Essex MPs to help her campaign: "We are calling on Essex MPs to stand up. We've had 1500 deaths and nobody is shouting about it... we need to know who was responsible...
“We want to know why things were allowed to continue. We need the police force and the clinical commissioning boards investigated. Until we can get to the bottom of why these things have been allowed to repeat, change will not come.”