After her childhood sweetheart husband took his own life, a widow is determined to change the way people with depression are treated.

Ricky Anderson was diagnosed in 2009, and in March 2012 started to go downhill rapidly.

He was admitted to Medway hospital in April but was discharged after a week.

His wife, Sally Anderson, said that within 48 hours he was suicidal.

“Your brain becomes your worst enemy. You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel” - Sally Anderson

She said: “They discharged him with no aftercare, no medication.

“I took him back to hospital. We sat there from 11pm until 7am before he was seen.”

On May 21, aged 48, Ricky hanged himself in Chatham cemetery.

Mrs Anderson, 41, of Mozart Court, Chatham, said: “No one had any idea it was as bad as it was, he was good at hiding things.

“I’d known him for all those years, why didn’t I see it?”

The couple met when Mrs Anderson was 15 and were married in 2005.

They have three children, Abby-Lee, 22, Tilly, 19, and Matthew, 16.

She said there did not seem to be a trigger for her husband’s depression. All of a sudden it was just there.

“People tell you to stop feeling sorry for yourself but it doesn’t work like that,” she said.

“Your brain becomes your worst enemy. You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

There are 30,000 people aged 18 to 65 in Medway suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

Mrs Anderson has set up a Facebook page, Depression Matters, which already has 700 likes.

She said: “I’ve had lots of people messaging me. I’m not a counsellor, I’m just willing to listen and try to help the best I can.

“I want to take the stigma away from depression.”

Mrs Anderson hopes to set up Depression Matters as a charity and one day open a walk-in centre for people in need of help, someone to talk to or just a safe place to sit.

She recently organised a football match raise money for mental health charity Mind in memory of Ricky, who was a Gillingham and Manchester United fan.