A FORMER competitive runner took his own life after becoming ‘fed up’ as his health problems prevented him from engaging in his active hobbies, an inquest heard. 

Alec Whiteside, 87, of Next Ness, was found hanged on the afternoon of November 30 in an outbuilding on his property by his brother-in-law Colin McIntyre. 

Mr McIntyre said in a statement read to Cockermouth Coroner’s Court he had coffee with Mr Whiteside every morning to discuss their plans for the day. 

He said he had asked if Mr Whiteside wanted to go with him to Coniston to buy a garden rake but that he ‘didn’t feel like it’, but that was ‘nothing unusual’. 

He said he ‘seemed unhappy’ due to his medical problems as he was currently seeking treatment for oesophageal problems and was finding it painful to eat or drink. 

He had also had three hip replacements in recent years along with a long-standing hernia that never healed, all of which reduced his mobility, forcing him to often rely on a walking stick, the inquest heard.

Mr Whiteside’s wife Florence, who he had married in 1986 after meeting at their employer Kimberley Clark, where Mr Whiteside worked as a mechanic, also gave a statement to the court. 

She said she was trying to arrange an operation for Mr Whiteside, who was ‘very fit and sporty’ until the few years before his death, but that he ‘was fed up and wouldn’t have any more operations’. 

She said he was ‘suffering with his illness and becoming forgetful’. 

Mrs Whiteside recalled the day of Mr Whiteside’s death stating that her husband’s ‘demeanour was normal’ in the morning before she went out shopping at around 10am. 

Mr McIntyre’s statement said that when he returned from Coniston in the afternoon he went to the Whitesides’ property to discover that Mrs Whiteside could not find her husband and both started searching the property for him. 

They called 999 at around 3.30pm after finding him in a workshop building. 

Paramedics pronounced Mr Whiteside dead at 3.53pm. 

Mr McIntyre’s statement said: “He had never mentioned to me any thoughts of self-harm or suicide. 

“It never crossed my mind he would do something like this.  

“He had seemed normal self that day.” 

A GP report showed no history of any mental health issues and a toxicology report showed nothing of any significance in Mr Whiteside’s system. 

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Margaret Taylor concluded: “Something has obviously just triggered this intent that he’s not going to wait around for what he saw as his ever-increasing health problems.  

“Something has made him go into the barn and take what in my view is a very deliberate act in taking his own life.  

“The only conclusion I can come to is that of suicide.  

“As a family, you had no hint of how wretched he was feeling about his life.” 

If you need someone to talk to contact Samaritans on 116 123.