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TRAGIC: Amanda Beckles was found dead in her home (Photo credit: Sky News)

A GRENFELL campaigner, who witnessed the inferno, committed suicide after writing a note saying the disaster had wrecked her life, an inquest heard.

Amanda Beckles, 51, was found dead in her bedroom by police who came to her flat in Notting Hill, about 900ft from the tower block.

A post-mortem found her cause of death to be asphyxia. “It is intensely sad,” said Dr Fiona Wilcox. “The Grenfell fire decimated a community and it has hit the most vulnerable hardest.”

Westminster coroner’s court heard Ms Beckles sought therapy after witnessing the 2017 fire in which 72 people died.

According to reports, she expressed anxieties towards her mental and financial state and displayed symptoms of PTSD.

Pc Gavin Harwood, who went to Ms Beckles’s home on December 13 last year, said neighbours were evacuated after he forced entry to the flat and found a warning note on her bedroom door.

He told the inquest: “There was a note on the bedroom door saying “warning, room filled with nitrogen gas”.

“Knowing that the occupant had taken her own life with gas and that other residents were at risk I suggested we evacuated. ‘Firefighters with gas masks later entered the room.”

Following Ms Beckles’s death, police found two notes. One said: “By the time you read this I will have passed. I need to let you know that there is nothing you could have done to stop this from happening. The Grenfell Tower fire has affected me badly.

“I had hoped the worst would be over but 17 months after I still suffer from acute anxiety. I really don’t know why it has affected me so badly but it isn’t a life worth living.”

Police Sergeant Mark Steadman told the court that they found the death to not be suspicious and that police concluded she had died behind locked doors after inhaling gas.

Ms Beckles was the founder and co-ordinator of the Grenfell Tower Community Monitoring Project.

She worked independently as a Community Engagement/Social Researcher Consultant for over three years and previously worked for a number of local authorities including Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Ealing.

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