A 21-year-old woman was found dead in her flat just months after graduating from university.
Ellie Boswell was seemingly 'always happy' and 'would light up any room she would walk into', her family said. The mental health worker, originally from Wythenshawe, had studied performing arts at Edge Hill university and graduated in the summer of 2021, the Liverpool Echo reports.
But just months later, on September 19, Ellie was tragically found dead in her flat, where she lived alone, having taken her own life. Her sister, Connah Proudman, had contacted the emergency services after she couldn't get hold of her following a night out the previous evening.
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Connah said her hard-working sister was seemingly 'always happy'. The 26-year-old said: "She was such a hard worker. She was an amazing singer.
"She was so happy and would light up any room she would walk into. She had to work so hard to get into university.
"When she went to college she had to resit some of her GCSEs to make sure she got into uni. When she knew what she wanted, she'd make sure she got it."
Ellie had moved to Merseyside from Manchester with her sister around 12 years ago before going on to study performing arts at Edge Hill University. When she graduated she realised she wanted to work as a mental health support worker.
Connah, who now lives in Frodsham with her son Zaine, nine, said: "Ellie had just graduated from Edge Hill in the summer. She was working as a mental health support worker in the Wirral and then she decided she wanted to join the army in a similar role.
"They offered her a role that would run alongside a master's degree so she could be properly qualified. She had shown zero signs of depression, it was completely out of the blue. We thought there was more chance of her getting hit by a bus than taking her own life.
"She was living in a flat in Liverpool at the time. Then one day no one could get hold of her.
"We thought she had gone out the night before. I spoke to her on the Saturday night and I just thought she was rough.
"I thought she was either hungover in bed, or she'd gone out or maybe even lost her phone. It got to the point where we had to get the police to break down her door. The toxicology report came back and she had hardly any alcohol in her system."
Ellie was laid to rest the day before her 22nd birthday on October 6, 2021, leaving behind Connah and their younger brother Frankie, 13. Now, Connah is raising money in Ellie's name for PAPYRUS, a UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional well-being in young people.
She will be doing a sky dive next month in the hope of raising awareness about suicide among young people. Connah wrote on her fundraising page: "PAPYRUS is an amazing charity with an amazing aim of the prevention of young suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional well-being.
"Whatever we can raise together in Ellie's memory for them will help so many people and hopefully stop another family from being broken like ours. I've chosen to do this to absolutely push myself out of my comfort zone.
"I've got to train hard in the gym to get down to a certain weight and I'm also not the most amazing with heights. I've got to keep focused and know there's only one reason I'm doing this, for Ellie and all of the other people that feel like Ellie did."
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