‘I didn’t send my daughter to university to die – there were so many lost red flags’

Like all parents, Liz de Oliveira sent her son to college in the hope that he would pursue his dreams.

Only his brilliant young daughter never came home.

In 2017, Lucy de Oliveira was 22 when she took her own life in her bedroom while studying for a pediatric nursing degree at Liverpool John Moores.

Liz says her daughter’s death was preventable, which is why she and 25 other parents are calling on the government to introduce a statutory care requirement for students at universities across the country.

The mum-of-two says Lucy, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, never had mental health problems until her second year of university, when she was put on antidepressants.

She had moved out of the corridors into a student house with four other girls, who she wanted to move out of but was struggling to get out of the lease. She was working 36 hours a week in a placement hospital and had recently separated from her boyfriend.

Once the rent is paid, single mum Liz says Lucy only had £6 to live on.