LATEST UPDATE – ON THE 21ST OF MARCH 2023 WE LOST OUR APPEAL TO SECURE A FRESH INQUEST INTO ALISON’S DEATH. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENCOURAGED AND SUPPORTED US EMOTIONALLY AND FINANCIALLY. WE REMAIN “DISAPPOINTED” THAT THE CORONER FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE OPPOSED OUR EFFORTS. OUR FULL RESPONSE TO THE JUDGEMENT FROM THE HIGH COURT IS HERE…

My name is Tom Bell. This website tells the story of my sister Alison, a young woman who was groomed and taken advantage of by an older male nurse when she was a vulnerable mental health patient of the NHS. Alison took her life soon after what happened. This is a story of the abuse of trust and hiding of wrongdoing by the Public Services we pay for and put our faith in.

This is a picture of our family at my christening in 1968. My sister Alison is the fidgeting redhead holding Dad’s hand. By all accounts, she was well on her way to the terrible twos. My mother and father split up when I was three, Alison was five and Sarah was seven.

My sister Alison was caring and intelligent, the kind of person who didn’t seem to have to try hard to get good grades. She read music and drove us to distraction trying to play the violin. She was a gentle soul who was loyal to her friends. In the 1980s, as a young woman in her teens, like one in four other people in the UK each year, Alison experienced Mental Health problems. Her episodes became increasingly severe and in 1987 she was sectioned and admitted to a Mental Health hospital in Carlisle called the Garlands.

Alison was shy, vulnerable, and increasingly disturbed. We entrusted her to the NHS in Cumbria thinking she would get the professional help she needed. If we knew then what we know now, we would have kept Alison away from that place at any cost.

So what happened to Alison?

Lions, Liars, Donkeys and Penguins – The Killing of Alison, was published on 05th May 2020, it would have been Alison’s 54th birthday. Click HERE to order a copy in Paperback or Kindle. An audio version is also available.