A FAMILY doctor suffering from "burn out" and depression hanged herself after her GP partner had left for work.

Dr Lucinda Jane Macdonald, 37, known as Cindy, was found by her father after he went to her home in Perranwell Station to see why she hadn't turned up for a lunch date with him and her mother.

David Macdonald told a Truro inquest this week that he let himself in through the front door, which was open.

He went inside and called her name thinking she was still in bed but as he went upstairs he saw her body on the landing of her home.

Two notes were found on the lounge table written in green ink, one addressed to her partner, a fellow doctor, Nigel Gray, and her mum and dad.

Dr Gray told the inquest on the day of her death they had a cup of coffee together in the morning before he went to work and she had seemed fine.

"When I left to walk to the railway station for work I had a brief conversation with her telling her to telephone me later to let me know of her plans for the afternoon," he said.

He later telephoned on a number of occasions but she did not answer her phone, which he said was not unusual. Her father later phoned to say that Dr Macdonald was ill and when he went round to the house he was told she had died.

A toxicology report after her death found 142 microgrammes of the opiate morphine in her blood which could not be explained.

Dr Gray said he had first met Dr MacDonald at a medical conference in Paris and they had become close friends.

The day before her death she had come to collect him from work an hour late and seemed drowsy, driving home with exaggerated caution.

When they got back to Perranwell Station she told him she had taken some tablets because she had become agitated in the afternoon about something and she wanted to calm down.

"She immediately fell asleep on the sofa," he said. "I made some food and roused her 20 minutes later and she ate it with some difficulty."

The inquest was told that Dr Macdonald was a partner at Westover Surgery in Falmouth. She worked there for five years before dissolving the partnership to work as a locum doctor instead.

In a statement read out to the inquest consultant psychiatrist, Dr Ben Charnaud, said Dr Macdonald had first been referred to him in 1998. He felt she was suffering symptoms of depression and "burn-out."

He treated her with psycho-therapy and drugs and felt she had made a full recovery. He said treatment for a breast abscess in 2001 had left her with mood swings and hypo-mania.

In December her mood was still low, he said, and her response to anti-depressants was not good and she was referred to Bristol where she was treated with a major tranquiliser for two weeks.

"I felt she improved and began to respond to medication, a fact that she herself confirmed," he said.

On the last occasion he saw her, on January 22, he felt she had made improvements since admission to the Priory hospital in Bristol and she discussed the possibility of returning to work. "We thought she was improving," said Dr Charnaud. "We were all deeply shocked to hear of her death."

West Cornwall coroner Dr Edward Carlyon recorded a verdict of suicide and expressed his sympathy to Mr Macdonald and Dr Gray.

Cindy was adopted by David and his wife in 1964, the year she was born.

They had lived in Tanzania, but as there was not a suitable school for her she had attended boarding school in the UK. She had gained a place at Cambridge to study medicine.

After graduating she got a position as a houseman at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro before setting up a partnership at Westover Surgery with another doctor where she stayed for five years.

During this time she had three months off with depression "probably due to pressure of work," said her father, and the partnership was dissolved and she decided to concentrate on locum work.

From time to time she would go out to Tanzania to recuperate and would have periods of highs and lows.

She took in a friend who was dying of cancer and that increased the pressure on her during the eight months he was alive.

In April, 2001, she found a lump in her breast. She blamed the anaesthetic used in its removal for a number of severe side effects including leaving her feeling out of control and hypo-mania.