A DEDICATED GP killed herself over her concern that she was unable to care for her patients as much as she wanted, her husband said yesterday.
Dawn Harris, 38, was found hanged on Saturday night by her husband, Michael Churchill, at their home in Bury, near Manchester.
Mr Churchill, also 38, an IT consultant, said: “She was a perfectionist.
“She had become depressed because of the stress of the job she longed to do but also because she couldn’t do more to help heal people. Dawn judged everything she did too highly.
“She cared for everyone and loved her job.”
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Mr Churchill, who was being comforted by his parents at the couple’s home, said: “I quit my job three years ago and started my own business so that we could co-ordinate our time off better.
“She took seven weeks of holiday a year and worked twice as hard to make sure she could take the time off.”
The couple, who met at university and married in 1992, shared a passion for wildlife, going on safari to Africa a number of times. They had discussed another trip in November.
“We still had some arrangements to make and we talked about them that morning. You analyse the conversations and think, ‘why did she say that?’ but no, there was nothing to suggest what she planned.
“It was like she was trying to conceal it. There was no trigger, it was all cumulative. She threw most of her time into her patients. It’s a busy town-centre surgery but she was totally dedicated.
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“That morning she came to watch me play cricket and then we came home. The holiday was the last thing we discussed when I popped out for some drinks with the rest of the team.
“It was when I came back that I found her. There was no note.”
Dr Harris read medicine for three years at St Andrews University, then moved to Manchester University, where she graduated. She worked as a junior doctor at Bury and Fairfield general hospitals.
She then spent time at Minden Medical Centre in Bury under the guidance of Derek and Patricia Fletcher. Both said that they were shocked by Dr Harris’s death. Mrs Fletcher led the tributes to Dr Harris. She said: “Dawn was enthusiastic, hard working, energetic and attractive. When she left we missed her vibrance, her laughter and her clinical competence.
“Her death is a great loss to general practice and her patients, but an even greater loss to her husband and family.”
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Dr Harris joined the Lever Chambers medical practice in Bolton in 1996, where she worked until her death. A spokesman for the partners said: “We are all shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic loss.”
An inquest will be held.