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  • Electrician Barry Winders, 57, was found dead at home in Leyland, Lancs in 2023

A devoted father, who was concerned he was being ‘pushed out of his job’ at a university due to health conditions including Long Covid, made a call to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about sick pay before he killed himself.

Barry Winders was an electrician at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston in summer 2022 when chronic pain and fibromyalgia forced him to take time off.

The pain was so severe that the 57-year-old struggled to sleep and started suffering from depression.

A year later in June 2023, having been told he needed to go back to work, Mr Winders overdosed on medication, an act that his family have suspected was deliberate.

On October 31 his wife Lesley found him dead in their home in Leyland, Lancashire.

Devoted father Barry Winders (pictured), who was concerned he was being 'pushed out of his job' at a university due to health conditions including Long Covid, made a call to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about sick pay before he killed himself

Devoted father Barry Winders (pictured), who was concerned he was being ‘pushed out of his job’ at a university due to health conditions including Long Covid, made a call to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about sick pay before he killed himself

Mr Winders was an electrician at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston in summer 2022 when chronic pain and fibromyalgia forced him to take time off

Mr Winders was an electrician at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston in summer 2022 when chronic pain and fibromyalgia forced him to take time off

Now an inquest has heard that the much-loved father had phoned the DWP with concerns about his Employment Support Allowance hours before he killed himself.

It also emerged at Preston Coroner’s Court that the electrician was awaiting referrals to the community mental health team and rheumatology clinic at the time of his death. 

Mr Winders had been prescribed incredibly strong medication to combat his ever increasing pain, which saw him struggle to walk long distances.

As a result doctors decided to wait to see how he responded to the new painkillers before they made the referral.

Dr Patel, from Leyland’s Central Park Surgery, also admitted that he had ‘failed to record’ that Mr Winders had taken an overdose in June 2023 and added: ‘On reflection this should have been taken into account.’

He added that the UCLan employee was moving along a ‘pain medication ladder’ causing him to be prescribed the strong painkillers.

The inquest heard that the electrician’s role had been made into a full-time job by the university but that Mr Winders had failed in his attempt to be recruited, with his bosses ‘indicat[ing] he was not fit enough for the role’.  

In a statement read by assistant coroner Sian Jones, Mr Winders’s family said he ‘felt he was being pushed out of his role due to his ill health and would not have a job’.

They added that he was a ‘dad who could turn his hand to any DIY task’ and that he ‘organised all the family holidays and the family has been left devastated by his loss’.

An inquest at Preston Coroner's Court (pictured) has heard that the much-loved father had phoned the DWP with concerns about his Employment Support Allowance hours before he killed himself

An inquest at Preston Coroner’s Court (pictured) has heard that the much-loved father had phoned the DWP with concerns about his Employment Support Allowance hours before he killed himself

Mr Winders’s friends have described him as ‘generous, skilled and funny’ and someone who had ‘a heart of gold’. 

One wrote online: ‘I only knew Barry a short time but we had some laughs and I could tell he was a great bloke. 

‘I would have loved to have got to know him better, and to hear all about his fish. 

‘It was an honour to have known him.’

Recording a conclusion of suicide, Ms Jones said: ‘It is clear he was a much-loved husband, father and family man. 

‘He had been suffering from a number of health conditions including Long Covid and fibromyalgia and some depression.

‘These matters had prevented him from returning to work and affected his quality of life generally.’

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Post sourceDaily mail

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