The husband of an Oswestry businesswoman who took her own life says he wants a charity ball being held in her memory to be her legacy.

Rachel Young died before Christmas, but had been going through a number of mental health issues for the last three years after she began to have psychotic episodes.

In October, his family – with the support of his and Rachel’s friend Julie Ross – will be hosting a charity ball in aid of mental health charities in the areas – such as Shropshire Mind – with a plan to make the event an annual one.

And Mark believes his wife, who he was married to for 33 years, will approve of the plans, saying it is the best way to remember the woman he loved with all his heart.

“She’s just an angel – she was my life and there was nothing bad about her,” said Mark.

“Rachel was so clever – she had a business running, two kids and did two degrees at night. The sheer work of what she did was just amazing.

“I am so proud that I was her husband. All I ever thought about each day was how to keep her happy and safe, and that’s all I did.

“I will always love her until the day I die. She was a wonderful person, and she didn’t have a bad bone in her body and was completely selfless.

“I would like her legacy to be this charity ball going on to be an annual event.

“It’s a way to remember her and for us to do some good for mental health in this area – she would think that’s fantastic, and it’s a way to keep her memory going without hurting us too much.

“I would like the death certificate to show that it wasn’t Rachel who took her own life, but that it was the psychosis. She was squeamish to the point of not hurting a fly.

“But she is a wonderful woman to remember and I don’t have a single bad word to say about her.

“We’d sit by each other and just talk – I was the luckiest person ever and I feel robbed.”

Mark said Rachel had not had any mental health issues in her life until three years ago, when she started having psychotic episodes, including hearing voices and intense paranoia.

She quickly received treatment, taking an antipsychotic called Risperidone, which treated the psychosis, but eventually Rachel needed hospital treatment.

Mark added: “It started as music in her head but it soon became voices so she had episodes before she went to the doctor.

“Friends had told me she had told them that she had issues with her ears, like a tinnitus, but then it turned into full-on sentences.

“It was also in that time that she would whisper while in the room because she said people were recording, so she had paranoia setting in.

“An example is that we had to go to the waterworks because she was convinced that our son and his girlfriend were fighting.

“I then took her to where my son lives and showed her they weren’t fighting, and I had to prove it to her.

“But she said to me that it was so real – she couldn’t distinguish between real life and the voices. She said the voices were coming out of the walls or the speakers.

“She couldn’t get away from them. Every time she went home, the voices started but eventually the Risperidone worked.”

However, on November 30, Rachel took her own life and Mark felt had she been able to go to hospital shortly before her death, she may be alive now.

Julie says the ball, on October 3 at The Wynnstay Hotel in Oswestry, will begin selling tickets from May but many tables have been provisionally secured.

“She hopes people and the biggest companies in the area are able to pass on donations for raffle prizes to raise money for the charities.

“Shropshire Mind are about to open a crisis café in Oswestry. I think that is something the authorities could have pointed Rachel in the direction of because they do have a number you can call.

“They’re just waiting for the confirmation from Qube and they have a number. If we’d known about that, then Rachel might have gone there.”

Details for the ball will be released at a later date, while a Just Giving page for charities in Rachel’s memory is also set to be created.

For more information about Shropshire Mind, head to www.shropshiremind.org or call 0300 123 3393.