'How do you live with yourselves' - mother's heart-breaking message to dealers who sold drugs to mentally ill son
A South Shropshire woman whose mentally son died after being plied with street drugs has spoken of the misery caused by the dealers.
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Andy Gilchrist, from Ludlow, died on March 19 last year, aged just 31.
His mother, Tracey Gilchrist, said her son had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia when he was a teenager and has slammed the drug dealers who she says knew of his son's illness.
“It was like watching someone you love and care for passing away in front of you,” she said, speaking of her son's illness.
“They change drastically from that little boy to someone else. He was always fighting the voices in his head and not with anyone else.”
But she added: “Andy was well known in and around Ludlow, and all who knew him, knew that he was a caring and placid man, and one with a big heart. This never changed as he grew up.”
She said his debilitating condition caused him to be sectioned a few times under the mental health act for his own safety, but Andy had “was never threating to anyone else”.
“By March 2023 he was on the highest levels of medication. And by March 2024 he was taking prescribed medications and self-medicating with alcohol and illicit drugs.”
She said despite warning her son of the dangers of illicit drugs, “as an adult I could not stop him”.
However, she said the dealers around Ludlow knew of her son's mental illness and vulnerability, but that did not stop them from plying him with ketamine and cocaine.
“How do people live with themselves selling drugs to someone you know should not be taking it.
“I understand that for those who do it is about the money and not the person, even though they grew up in the same town, and this had to be case for Andy as it was the drugs that took his life in the end.”
She said there had been “missed opportunities” to bring the dealers to justice following her son's death and she has vowed to “never stop fighting for justice”.
Anybody suffering issues with mental health and drugs can find information on how to seek help from https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/recreational-drugs-alcohol-and-addiction/support-for-drug-and-alcohol-problems
