Monday, 8 September 2008

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Mark Speight's mum dies after his suicide

Jacqueline Speight had suspected stroke

Mark Speight presented children's art programme SMart on the BBC

Mark Speight’s mum has been found dead at her Wolverhampton home.

Jacqueline Speight, 62, passed away from a suspected stroke.

Her youngest son Jason discovered her body on Friday morning.

She had been devastated after Mark, 42, committed suicide at London’s Paddington station in April.

‘With all that happened to Mark, the pressure was too much,’ Mark’s best friend Stuart Goldsmith, 43, tells The Sun.

‘If you lost your son would you ever get over it? You never get over it.’

Mark hanged himself just days after an inquest into the death of his fiancée Natasha Collins, 31.

She died in the bath after a coke binge at their London flat in January.

The SMart presenter was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs but was released without charge.

A joint memorial service will be held for Mark and Natasha at a London church this week.

'After Natasha died, Mark sat with me and said we should to something to celebrate her life,' her mum Carmen tells the Sunday Mirror. 'But tragically, we are now remembering the lives of Natasha and Mark.'