The inventor of the GHD – the hair straightening tool that makes mornings easier for people worldwide – took his own life last year, after years of struggling with mental illness and acute anxiety.

Before his death, he faced some money issues due to poor investments, which made his state of mind worsen.

His wife Diana [below, and again with his sons] claims that a new regiment of medication prescribed to manage his condition may have had the adverse effect.

It’s also possible that he stopped taking his medication, and an inquest into his suicide is underway, which is why it’s now back in the news.

Here’s the Daily Mail with more:

Father-of-two Martin Penny, 63, who was once worth £80m after his GHD products took the world by storm, hanged himself in the master bedroom of his £2.7million home in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

His family told the hearing of their concerns about how he has money worries and suffered from insomnia and anxiety. They said his condition deteriorated after he was prescribed a number of different drugs.

Sister Barbara Penny told the Harrogate inquest: ‘He had anxiety all his life. He had never talked about suicide ever until he took those drugs. I have never seen him in that state ever.’

Penny founded the GHD business with friends Gary Douglas and Robert Powls, a former Keighley hairdresser, in 2001. He had already created the environmental consultancy firm OHS.

Mr Powls came across the ceramic hair straightening irons on a business trip to America and, having renamed them GHD (Good Hair Day), the trio started the business from Mr Powls’s Ilkley home and took the UK hairdressing industry by storm.

GHD moved to offices in Silsden and grew quickly into a worldwide sensation, boasting Madonna, Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow among those who used its products. In 2008 Mr Penny was said to be worth £80 million.

Over the years, Penny bought his partners out and took new partners, but was eventually forced out of the business.

A three-year court battle ensued which cost him millions of pounds.

In 2016 Mr Penny was reportedly still worth £50m but he was still the owner of OHS when it went into administration at the beginning of 2017 and he resigned as director of OHS and numerous other companies in June 2018.

The hearing heard he was prescribed anti-depressants by a GP – although he only took two because he was concerned about their effects. He was later prescribed an alternative antidepressant as well as other medication by a private psychiatrist.

His condition deteriorated, and in March last year, he was admitted into hospital. When he was released, his family says that he remained stable for a while, but eventually fell back into depression and anxiety.

[Penny’s doctor] Dr Nehaul told the inquest Mr Penny had scored 21 out of 21 on an anxiety scale and 20 out of 21 on a scale measuring depression.

He said: ‘He was very worried that he was going to go bankrupt because there were problems with a property he had bought. He felt he had made mistakes buying that property.’

All of this has come to light in the recent inquest into his death, and led many to question the medication he was on at the time.

If you or a loved one struggle with mental illness, or need help with depression or anxiety, you can find it here.

[source:dailymail]