A glamorous 28-year-old businesswoman killed herself
because she struggled to cope with living alone in Britain with her family
dispersed across the world, an inquest heard yesterday.
Sales manager Sharon Bukokhe, of Levenshulme,
Manchester, was a high achiever working for a family planning charity but felt
lonely because relatives including her husband lived abroad.
Mrs. Bukokhe, who was originally from Kenya, used
her laptop to research ways to commit suicide, applied full make up and painted
her nails then suffocated herself at her flat in April.
A diary found after her death said:
‘I think that any life is as valid as the next, such
that an ending of 25 is as good as 88. I have no real regrets or fears any
more, I just feel decisive and justified.’
Mrs. Bukokhe, who appeared to friends to be ‘the
happiest person in the world’, settled in the UK in 2002 and graduated in
design and engineering at Nottingham Trent University, the inquest heard. She
was later appointed sales manager of a charity helping with family planning
issues involving third world countries. But Mrs. Bukokhe was deeply affected by
her family living in other countries.
Her husband lived in South Africa so he could
complete a Master’s Degree whilst her mother lived in Richmond, Virginia, in
the US, and her sister lived in Canada.
Her only relative in Britain was her brother who
lived 250 miles away in Gillingham, Kent and as a result of her feelings of
loneliness she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Well, I don’t see this as enough reason why she
should take her own life! Continue after the cut…
