After the death of her daughter while fighting for justice, the mother said, ‘Anger is taking the place of grief.’

Amanda Walker felt she was trapped in a flat she couldn’t sell because of flammable cladding.

When it was discovered that no government scheme would cover the cost of removing hazardous materials from her newly built flat in south London, she started campaigning.

He spent four years trying to get justice for himself and the millions of people exposed by the Grenfell Tower fire.

Then, at age 51, his mother and sister found him dead in his one-bedroom apartment. At a recent inquest a verdict of death by mischief was recorded.

Her mother Glenda recalls, “She would often call me late at night when she couldn’t deal with it.”

“I wish she could call me right now.”

Half a year ago, in July 2023, Amanda addressed peers in the House of Lords investigating the impact of the cladding problem on flat owners.

“It’s devastating. It’s just a quagmire. It’s just chaos,” he told them. “This is so unfair. I’ve done nothing wrong and this has already ruined my life.”

The video of Amanda’s address to the Lords is now in the possession of her mother, who is speaking for the first time since the inquest was decided.

Glenda thinks Amanda, an office manager at a hedge fund in the City of London, has started drinking to cope with the anxiety of facing unaffordable bills running into the thousands to fix the cladding.

“I’m not ashamed of him because it was his way of coping. He used the term ‘seeking oblivion.’

Amanda wrote countless letters to MPs, local authorities and other responsible bodies – but “always received a statutory response”, her mother added.

“There are still over a million people in this situation and (MPs and civil servants) will write these absurd letters saying ‘oh we’re doing this, we’re doing that’.”

She doesn’t just see these as unhelpful – but as evidence that no one really understands the scale of the problem and how seriously it is affecting people.

The government eventually launched a scheme – the Building Safety Fund – to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding outside Amanda’s flat.

She was hoping that changes to a separate landmark law called the Building Safety Act, brought in after the Grenfell tragedy, would help her fix internal fire safety faults, such as inadequate fire stopping between flats.

But he did not do so. There were significant exceptions for those who qualified.

Because some of the other flat owners in her development had bought a share of the building’s freehold, she is known as a “non-eligible” leaseholder – meaning she still has to contribute to the cost of the repairs, which is heavily uncapped. Facing bills.

Several proposed amendments to the Building Safety Act that would have protected people in Amanda’s position were rejected in the last Parliament.

What Amanda was always afraid of was the threat of repaying unpaid amounts. He described it as “the sword of Damocles over my head for three long years”. There was hope for a while. “And then they vote against us on everything,” he told colleagues.

Amanda’s drinking increased and her family sought medical help. She agreed to be admitted to the hospital. The GP and psychiatrist were clear in their reports: Amanda’s drinking, stress and anxiety were having an impact on her mental state. He was given anti-depressants.

He continued campaigning with his mother, but things slowly started going downhill.

Glenda believes that the anti-depressants she was given were not helping her. “I think she was overmedicated and her head was spinning. She wasn’t sad, she kept saying: ‘I’m not sad, I’m angry.'”

Amanda’s partner separated from her as Cladding campaigning took up more and more of his life. His mother and sister would make trips to visit him to try to support him.

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One day this January the situation worsened.

Glenda became even more nervous about her daughter, and knew she needed immediate medical attention.

She says she wrote a “quite articulate” letter to the hospital where her daughter was previously treated, warning that her condition was becoming critical.

Traveling to London in the rain, she found herself “calling and calling and calling” at the hospital to try to get doctors to intervene again.

Amanda was found dead the next day.

Asked if she ever thought her daughter might kill herself, Glenda says: “Manda talked about it. She talked about it.”

She says she can understand her daughter’s state of mind that weekend.

“Yes, I’ve seen it often. I’m different from her and she felt frustrated… She wanted justice and she thought it was terrible. I think she completely lost faith in the government. “

The government says work is already underway through the Remedial Acceleration Plan “to ensure that those responsible for the crisis pay their fair share”.

It added that “all options are continuing to be considered to ensure that residents no longer have to suffer the nightmare of living in unsafe buildings”.

Amanda’s flat has now been handed over to her parents.

Its exterior has now been replaced and they are trying to sell it – but they still haven’t been able to do so due to structural fire issues inside the property.

Unless the Building Safety Act is amended by new legislation, Amanda’s parents or any prospective buyers will be liable to pay to fix those problems.

Amanda’s mother hopes speaking out about her daughter’s death has not been in vain and that her story can be a catalyst.

“You are going through grief… and maybe now anger is also creeping in a little bit.

“For his sake, we’d like to think he’s made some small difference.”