A 'dearly loved' A Level student, who struggled with his mental health during the pandemic, took his own life, an inquest heard. Lucas Anthony Backhouse, 18, died at home in Lancashire on October 16 last year, LancsLive reports.
Staff at Cardinal Newman College, where he had been studying for A levels, had not been made aware of his mental health issues. An inquest at Preston Coroner’s Court on Tuesday heard how Lucas, of Richardson Avenue in Garstang, had got nine GCSEs at Lancaster Royal Grammar School prior to starting at college, but had struggled to cope with online learning at college during the pandemic.
Lucas’s mum, Angela Backhouse, told the coroner's court how he found online learning difficult, and said the college had returned to 40% of face-to-face learning post pandemic, adding she believed it had had a ‘significant impact’ on her son. The court heard how Lucas had repeated Year 12 twice, successfully passed Business Studies A level then returned to college last September, believing he would be repeating one Year 12 A level and doing one Year 13 course.
