Hannah’s story

Hannah Aitken was just 22 when she is suspected of using a pro-suicide forum to order the lethal substance that ended her life.

Growing up Hannah engaged in numerous activities and clubs ranging from climbing and swimming, particularly in the sea on holiday, through gymnastics and brownies where she was awarded amongst others the gardening badge. In her later years, she adored her dog Milo and loved taking him for long walks.

Selfless and caring, Hannah had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD and due to poor mental health was living in supported accommodation.

She had hidden the packaging the substance arrived in and despite attending promptly, paramedics were unaware of what she had ingested and could not resuscitate her.
Under the Poisons Act, the substance is used for industrial purposes and is classified as ‘reportable’ but is not an illegal substance.

In Hannah’s case, she had tried to buy the chemical from a company in Manchester, but abandoned the purchase after the seller sent her a declaration-of-use form. Instead, she was easily able to buy the substance from a seller in Malaysia.

Hannah’s Mum and Dad, Amanda and Pete, now campaign with Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms and are campaigning for stricter regulation of the substance and better action from Police and Border Force to prevent it being available to vulnerable young people.

It comes after Molly Rose Foundation revealed that coroners had made 65 warnings to Government departments about the substance and the forum that promotes it.
Pete said: “Had this been a regulated poison, Hannah would have needed a license and that would have stopped that train in its tracks.”

Amanda and Pete are also campaigning for ambulances to carry its antidote.
Pete said: “This poison is incredibly fast-acting; but if you get to the patient before they go into cardiac arrest, the antidote is fairly easy to administer intravenously and doesn’t have any dramatic side effects.

“If the paramedics had known and carried it, then perhaps she could have been saved.”