Fiona Rosemary Smith

Fiona was full of life and was the life and soul of the party when they were well. Fiona's short life was blighted by their mental health issues that began when they were around 12 years old. Fiona was prescribed antidepressants which assisted a little and they were referred to CAMHS however when Covid lockdown began Fiona did not want to have counselling online. Fiona was referred to a psychiatrist who diagnosed them with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD) Fiona enjoyed so much in life, they loved skiing which they had done since they were about 3 and also loved paddling both kayaking and canoeing and one of the highlights for Fiona was canoeing from Fort Augustus to Fort William with their parents. This spurred Fiona on to complete their gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition paddling from Fort Augustus to Inverness; they loved sharing their paddling passion with their friends. Fiona had been in a relationship with their boyfriend, Riley, for 6 years which was a mutually supportive partnership. They both studied in Dundee before Fiona's mental health took a nose dive and they had planned to go back to University together and move in with each other. Fiona dreamed of being a criminologist after completing a degree in Psychology and we have no doubts that Fiona would have achieved this if their mental health had allowed them to. Fiona's EUPD meant that at times they struggled with their friendships and it was very hard for their friends to understand how they reacted at times which led to a breakdown of relationships which deeply affected Fiona. Fiona's first suicide attempt was in 2020 when they took a large quantity of their mum's propanalol but fortunately they were found a short time later and taken to hospital. Fiona tried again the following year after falling out with their friends but this was seen as a reaction to this fallout. Fiona attempted suicide for the third time whilst studying at Dundee University when they once again took an overdose of propanalol that they had been prescribed for anxiety. After surviving this attempt Fiona returned home and became stable again with the support of her boyfriend and family. They received support from their psychiatrist, their CPN and their support worker from We are With You and Fiona appeared to be making good progress however after some personal issues their life began to spiral downwards again. Fiona completed suicide on 15th November 2023 despite the best efforts of her parents and the medical professionals. We want to try to assist others in similar situations and believe that by fundraising for SAMH we may prevent another family from experiencing what we have gone through. We love and miss Fiona all the time and it is really hard to go on without them but we know that it is important that we lead as full lives as we possibly can. We are starting off our fundraising adventure by walking Hadrian's Wall starting on 27th April 2024 finishing on 2nd May 2024 and then one of her cousins is running the Leeds marathon the following weekend.