First class honours Graduate Shirley hanged herself after facing the "three most stressful things in life"

An inquest heard that Shirley Jensen had turned her life getting involved in drugs when she was 18 and obtained a first class honours degree before being hailed an 'an inspirational leader'' by work colleagues at an auction house.

But the 41-year-old teetotal charity fundraiser found herself unable to cope after she was forced to switch jobs, split up with a boyfriend and move to a flat.

The keen traveller told her company director mother: “Three of the most stressful things that can happen to a person have happened to me at the same time – I’ve ended a relationship, started a new job and moved house.”

Later when failed to turn up for work at a property company, concerns were raised when her manager said she was ‘far too professional not to ring in’.

Police broke into Miss Jensen's home in Hazel Grove near Stockport, Greater Manchester where they found her body and a note which said: “I’m sorry.”

Nearby was a book titled ‘Letting Go’, which contained advice on relationship boundaries following a separation.

The hearing was told Miss Jensen, formerly of Aberdeen, had developed her drug addiction after falling in with the wrong crowd at school and was jailed in 1992 for six months for possession of Class A drugs.

But when she was released after serving half her sentence, she vowed to get her life back on track and became teetotal at the age of 20 and went back to college to further her career and help others.

Miss Jensen moved to Manchester where she got a job as a PA before enrolling at Manchester Metropolitan University where she graduated in Sociology with Information and Communications.

Miss Jensen's mother Winifred Barber, 63, told the Stockport hearing: “She attended Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous and helped other women to get over their experience of drugs and alcohol.

"Despite her problem with her record she was always in regular employment or studying. She was never idle.”

Miss Jensen went on a management training course before working as an office manager for her mother's company A F Brock Auctioneers Valuers & Buyers where colleagues said she was a ''dynamic and inspirational leader".

But when the company was closed down in July last year, Miss Jensen moved to a new job as an office manager with a property firm and her five-year relationship with her boyfriend Chris broke up.

He moved out of their shared home in June last year and she was to move to a flat.

Her mother added: “She was a very loving and beautiful young woman. I have great faith and a belief that I will meet her again one day and she will reveal all."

Credit: The Mirror UK