A CORONER has voiced concern about an industrial chemical which has featured in the suicides of two young Cumbrians.

In the latest tragedy, a Cambridge University undergraduate who was battling with anxiety took a fatal overdose of the substance, which can be bought online.

Coroner Dr Nicholas Shaw has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to raise his concerns, while Carlisle MP John Stevenson says the Government should consider tightening regulations around the sale and supply of the chemical.

An inquest heard yesterday that 19-year-old Katherine Turnbull was an academically brilliant student who gained three A* grades at A level following her sixth-form studies at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Penrith.

The teenager, from Aglionby, near Carlisle, went to study English at Cambridge University. Hard-working and committed to her studies, she was regarded at university as a very caring individual who tried to look after the wellbeing of her friends.

On June 19 last year, she took a “minor” overdose of paracetamol tablets, saying she did it to get into a state where she “didn’t have to think”.

Supported by her parents and brother, she visited her GP and was prescribed an antidepressant medication but wanted to take more medical advice before staring the tablets prescribed.

The night before she died, on June 30 last year, she had spent the evening playing board games with her brother and had discussed her university work with her mother. She was found in her bedroom the following morning and could not be revived.

A search of her room revealed an opened package containing the chemical which tests later confirmed caused her death. There was evidence on Katherine’s phone that she had done searches for the particular chemical involved.

“There was nothing to suggest she was thinking of taking her own life,”said her mother Annette in a statement.

Recording a conclusion that Katherine took her own life, Dr Shaw described her death an “absolute tragedy”.

“How appalling it must be for her family for this to happen,” he said.

“For such a promising young life to be extinguished so suddenly. As a student at Cambridge, she was clearly a very clever girl; she would have had the world at her feet.”

The coroner went on to note that the chemical which caused Katherine Turnbull’s death had featured in the death of a young west Cumbrian man last year. His ability to buy that substance online had prompted Dr Shaw to write to Health Secretary Matt Hancock in the hope that something may be done to prevent future deaths.

The coroner pointed out that the substance is available online “with no safeguards” to prevent its misuse.

“Clearly, this is something that the Department for Health should be looking at," said Carlisle MP John Stevenson.

“This was a very tragic case.

"I can’t see any reason why this chemical should not be regulated and restricted so that it is only sold to those businesses which have a bonafide reason to use it.

“It’s incredibly sad that some people have taken their lives in this way.”

Dr Shaw presided over an inquest late last year following the death of a 30-year-old Workington man.

He, too, had overdosed on the same chemical.

* The Samaritans can be called at any time on 116 123; or email Jo@samaritans.org

* Papyrus is a charity dedicated to preventing young suicides. Its Hopeline is on 0800 068 4141; the charity’s website www.papyrus-uk.org

* The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is on 0800 585858; its website is www.thecalmzone.net