Dearly departed ......farewell Rob

I have some bad news for some Group members, especially in the UK.

This message is for Group members in the UK and whoever else knew
Rob. Please note, this is concerning Rob from UK and not Rob from
Australia, America or anywhere else.

I contacted Rob's number a week or so ago (as a Group member had come
to stay with me for 10 days) and was informed by Rob's mother (Rob
was temporarily staying with his parents) that she lost Rob in June
of this year!

Rob was 1 of around 20 UK members who I had met personally. I met Rob
on at least 5-10 occassions and found him to be an intelligent,
confident guy (despite this problem).

He was a handsome guy, around 30ish and quite well spoken. He
attended a number of our Group meetings in London but stopped
attending the meetings around a year or so ago. He said he would come
but always backed out at the last minute, I think he had financial
problems.

He recently split up with a long-term girlfriend and told me that she
could not accept the way he isolated himself from society because
this affected her social life greatly aswell. He refused to meet her
friends and he left his job after some colleagues made fun of his
condition.

In his last days, Rob suffered markedly from Bipolar Disorder
(according to his mum) and he told me that he believed certain
individuals were spying on him, making derogatory remarks about his
odour, and were out to harm him.

I was too gutted to ask Rob's mum how he died, and I suspect she was
too gutted to tell me also.

I'm sorry to post this sort of thing on a 'Support Group', perhaps
it's very wrong of me but I wanted others who knew Rob to know.

Rob rang me close to the time he died and told me he was feeling
down. He had recently moved from London to a city some 200 miles away
(where his parents lived) and I told him I would try to visit him
soon. I don't think I realized just how down Rob was.

Guys, if you ever hear from Group members that they are feeling
really down, please make a big effort to support them otherwise you
may end up feeling like me.
Arun