The fiancée of a father-of-five who died while on a dream fishing holiday in Thailand has said mental health services need to be improved to avoid further tragedies.

Kevin Rowlands took his own life on Monday while staying at Gillhams Fishing Resort, on Krabi, with a friend.

The 35-year-old, of Eustace Crescent, Strood, had been in the south east Asian country for five days.

Partner Tracy King, 38, said he had struggled with mental health and alcoholism for two decades, culminating in several suicide attempts in the last three of four years, most recently last month.

She said: “He was receiving help from the health services and from substance abuse charity Turning Point in Medway.

“He knew he needed help but he wanted a quick fix and there’s no such thing.

“He’d been sectioned before but he was a very intelligent man who did not like being alone and therefore he’d always tell doctors he was fine and they’d just let him go – I don’t think that’s right.

“As a family we knew he wasn’t fine and I think in those situations we should be able to have more say on the care he receives and potentially stop him being released.

“Doctors just gave him medicine and sent him away. I really think the health services should do more to help people in those positions receive the help they desperately need.”

Miss King added: “If he had not been drinking that night this would never have happened. He was a completely different person when he was drunk.”

She also revealed she last spoke to Mr Rowlands about half an hour before he was found.

Despite being urged to get travel insurance Mr Rowlands never got round to it and now his family need to raise £2,500 to fly him back to the UK.

Miss King says an additional £4,000 is needed to get him from Heathrow to Devon, where he was brought up and his four other children live, and to give him a decent send off.

A GoFundMe page has now been set up to help achieve this.

Miss King said: “He was happy go lucky – a lovely, genuine person. But he let his feelings get the better of him.

“I’d just urge people not to give up on those with mental health, he had so much to live for but it’s not a case of just telling him that and he’d get better.

“When he was in those dark places it didn’t matter that he had his whole life ahead of him or a young son.

“It’s very important people realise there’s no quick fix for mental illness.”

The keen fisherman moved to Strood two years ago and worked as a mobile phone technician.

He got engaged to Miss King and had a baby, seven-month-old Issac, and also helped bring up Miss King’s eight-year-old daughter, Eden.

Mr Rowlands had children Hope, 17, Joshua, 13, Summer, 11, and Paige, 10, all from previous partner Kelly Tremlett in Devon.

In the days before his death he had been regularly updating his Facebook page with pictures of huge fish he had caught.

In one post he wrote: "Just had a sting ray on for a good 15 minutes. It was solid, like hooking the bottom, then the hook straightened out."

Gillhams is renowned for the giant sea creatures it is home to and has featured on hit shows such as River Monsters and Monster Carp.

If you would like confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116 123.

To donate to the fundraising page, click here.