In a photo her sister treasures, Paula Parretti smiles brightly. It was taken soon after she had decided to colour half of her hair bright pink.

“She was an amazing auntie, like the fun aunt,” Sam Cook recalls.

“She’d always be there for my children. Laughing, joking, buying them the noisiest toys, all that fun stuff and she wanted to see them grow.”

But Paula died in January 2022. It was Sam who discovered her in her flat.

“I want to see her beautiful face as a memory. But I don’t. I see that last image,” Sam says.

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Weeks earlier Paula had been discharged from hospital, despite being visibly distressed.

“They dropped her bags at my feet and said, ‘You’ve got to take her home, we need the bed’,” Sam recalls.

“I said, ‘Can you not see she’s having a panic attack?’ And they said, ‘Sorry, but we need the bed. There’s lots of people that need help’. So, I had to take her home and all she kept saying was Nobody listens. I’m never going to get any help. Nobody’s listening to me. There’s no point’.”

Sam is set to become one of the first relatives to speak on behalf of loved ones at a public inquiry into thousands of deaths of mental health patients in Essex.

The Lampard Inquiry began last week with its chair Baroness Lampard saying the number of deaths that will be looked at will be significantly in excess of the 2,000 that were being considered by a previous investigation.

The patients all died between 2000 and 2023.

Sam says her sister never felt listened to. During a previous stay at the Linden Centre, a mental health unit in Essex, she says Paula suffered broken ribs and bruising at the hands of staff. She says the NHS Trust admitted fault following that incident and paid some compensation.

Paul Scott, chief executive officer of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, said in a statement to Sky News: “My thoughts are with Paula’s family at this difficult time and I am sorry for the distress caused during Paula’s care, and send my deepest condolences for their loss.”

Sam says she’s determined to keep fighting for change so other patients don’t suffer like her sister.

“I promised myself after she passed away that I’d get her voice heard… now I’m finally, finally giving her her voice,” she says.

Before her sister’s death, Sam had also lost a cousin and a friend who were both suffering with their mental health.

Since posting online about her loss, she’s been contacted by people concerned about mental health services around the country.

“It’s nationwide,” Sam says. “People are saying they’re having the same treatment. They’re begging for help.

“I think people think they won’t speak up. And if they do speak up, are they going to get believed? Or are people going to put it down to their mental health?

“I think it needs us families to really put it out there that these were people. Just because they have mental health problems, it doesn’t mean that they’re anything less than a person. They have family, they’re mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles. They’re loved.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.