Illness robbed man of active life - inquest

Eighty-five-year-old James Edward Alderson had been staying with his son Clive and daughter-in-law Elaine at their Purley home when he took the fatal decision, the hearing in Newbury was told.
The couple told in a statement how Mr Alderson, a retired sheet metal worker and widower of 10 years, had lived an “active, independent lifestyle,” continuing to potter in the garden and to bicycle for fitness.
But recently he had developed the painful condition polymyalgia rheumatica, the inquest heard, and had become depressed about it the way it curtailed his activities.
During the first weekend in February, his son said, he had seemed particularly low and he and his wife had collected him from his nearby home to stay with them for a while at their home in Beech Road.
Clive Alderson, aged 54, said in a statement: “He seemed to go downhill very quickly and had difficulty focussing for any length of time.”
On the night of February 9, the inquest heard, the Aldersons went to bed as usual but the next morning they realised Mr Alderson’s bed in the spare room had not been slept in.
Upon investigating, the inquest heard, they found him lying on the kitchen floor with a wound to his wrist and a knife lying nearby.
They tried in vain to resuscitate Mr Alderson until an ambulance arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post mortem investigation found the cause of death was blood loss from the wrist wound.
Police found no suspicious circumstances.
Mrs Alderson said in a statement that her father-in-law recently spoke of “topping himself.” They regarded this as a cry for help, the hearing was told, and subsequently moved Mr Alderson in with them.
Assistant deputy coroner for Berkshore, Ashley Fegan-Earl, said: “It’s absolutely clear that you both gave him every level of support to help him through these difficult times.”
He ruled that Mr Alderson had “taken his own life while low in mood.”
Afterwards his son paid tribute to a loving father and grandfather of two and added: “It was so hard for him to lose his freedom to this illness.”