Student takes his own life after convincing himself he had an incurable disease

A university student took his own life after convincing himself he had incurable cancer

The 18-year-old had reportedly turned down offers to socialise with his housemates, and was later found suffocated in his room, with his bags yet to be unpacked.

He was discovered after his father James alerted university officials on September 20 after having not heard from Charles.

The officials entered Charles' room after not getting a response, and discovered his body lying on the bed.

Post-mortems revealed that Charles was perfectly healthy, but notes discovered in his room revealed that he believed he was suffering from incurable cancer.

There was found to be no drugs or alcohol in his system, only increased ketone levels which may have been due to fasting.

The notes explained that he believed he was suffering from stage 4 bowel cancer that had spread to his brain and chest. His self-diagnosis claimed that it “wasn’t survivable”, per York Mix.

Assistant coroner for York and North Yorkshire Alison Norton said these notes alongside with Charles' blogs “indicated that he had made a decision to take his own life, rather than suffer with an illness that he believe that he had”.

Charles' father James described his son as “always happy, and interested in everything”, and explained that he wasn't aware his son had any concerns about university.

Charles had achieved 3 A grade A-levels in Computer Science, Maths and Physics, and had planned to be a software engineer after finishing his Computer Science degree at York.

A spokesperson for the university said: "We were deeply saddened by the death of Charles and our thoughts are with his family and friends. 

"Since we shared the very sad news with our staff and students, we continue to encourage anyone who is struggling to contact us for further advice and support."