PHILLIP LEITCH
30.5.81 - 7.4.04

Phillip came into this world on a gloriously sunny day on 30th May 1981. Phillip would have been twenty-three on 30th May 2004.

Our son made the decision to take his own life and leave this world that he found so difficult to live in.

What can we tell you about Phillip, so that you might be able to understand why he took his own life. As parents the love we had for him was unconditional, he was a gentle, loving boy who hated violence and loved the out door life.

Phillip worked on a fish farm and during the last year of his life he worked as a gillie on Manor Estate, where we think he spent the happiest days of his working life.

Phillip's Dad is from Arnisdale and I, his mother, am from Tongue in Sutherland. Phillip loved to go north on his holidays, for him happiness was going to Arnisdale with his Dad and taking to the hills on his motor bike.

So, you might be thinking, what was so wrong in our son's life that made him want to die? Well, Phillip had a demon inside his head, called clinical depression, which controlled him for many years. He tried so desperately to get help from professionals, but they failed to listen to what he was trying to tell them.

Their answer was prescribed drugs, which did not help him, but made him more unwell. Phillip did not want to live his life taking prescribed drugs, he wanted a drug free life, but his pleas went unheeded.

The morning our boy decided to leave us was as sunny as the day he was born. We are left with feelings of guilt, anger, sadness, despair and many other emotions that go with losing a much loved son and they take up every waking moment of our lives.

We, Phillips family, hope that by expressing our feelings and talking about our son will help someone with similar problems.

Mental health issues must be discussed and doctors and other professionals be made aware that drugs are a last resort. If they had talked and listened to Phillip many years ago he would still be here with us today.

At some point, when we feel ready, Phillip will go home to Arnisdale, his ashes to be scattered on Loch Horne, where at last he will find peace on this earth forever.

In Memory of Phillip Ewen Leitch

Mam and Phil. i will alway's remember you like this. love you alway's.