Devastated Kirk Norcross saw signs before dads suicide after money troubles
Devastated Kirk Norcross has detailed the tragedy of his father's final moments, explaining that Mick was struggling in the months before.
Mick died aged 57 on January 21, 2021 after taking his own life following a string of money troubles as projects he had invested in grinded to a halt, alongside pressures of the national lockdown.
Kirk said that, in hindsight, he’d seen the signs his dad was struggling and explained he only found out his dad had tried to take his own life just two months before.
The former TOWIE star said that his dad's first attempt was "clearly a cry for help", but added that he knew nothing about it at the time.
He said: "If I had known this, I would never have let my dad do what he did. I would have handcuffed myself to him and got everyone together and said: ‘spiritually, lovingly and financially, I'll do anything for you dad.'"
Kirk has confessed he believes the pressures and struggles began when Mick, who featured on TOWIE as the owner of famous club The Sugar Hut, bought the location in Brentwood 15 years ago.
He said: "My dad was always a fiercely hard-working bloke and had a positive mental attitude about everything. He would also turn a negative into a positive. He was old school. He walked with his head up and chest out. But buying the Sugar Hut was not a great investment. Nothing to do with him but I think he thought he was buying something else."
His struggles with the nightclub continued when there was a fire in 2009 – leaving Mick to shell out £1million in refurbishment costs and pay staff £36,000 a month in wages.
Kirk said: "Then about six years ago he put most of his money into three properties. He’d never done a property deal until six years ago. He took on three sites at once. He left himself very little disposable capital. I think it was his goal to try to make enough money for multiple generations to come. He was always aspiring to more."
But when lockdown was enforced on the nation in March 2020, work on all Mick’s projects ground to a halt.
Kirk explained that he started to see "signs" that he wasn't himself during the lockdown.
He said: "Usually, even if he had nothing to do in a day he would get himself showered and put a nice jumper on just to watch the TV.
"But he started wearing this grey tracksuit number and was moping around the house a bit. He was always so ‘chest out and head high’ bloke.
"I used to joke to him ‘where has your chest gone man, pull yourself together.’ It’s the way we’d talk to each other.
"I just put he's move down to dealing with lockdown. He was a diabetic that was properly locked down for 12 weeks at the start of it. I guess what I’d say to others is always try to spot the signs even when you don’t suspect them."
On January 21, 2020 at 7am, Mick posted a cryptic tweet which read: "Reminding yourself that you did the best you could."
Police were called to the property at 3.15pm the same day and confirmed a man, later identified as Mick Norcross, was pronounced dead at the scene.
His son Kirk vowed to make him proud and now now been announced as an ambassador for suicide charity Papyrus and now helps "10 to 20 people a day" online who are dealing with depression or thinking about taking their own life.
*If you are feeling suicidal or affected by issues talked about by Kirk then contact Papyrus, www.papyrus-uk.org or call 0800 068 41 41 or contact Samaritans, www.samaritans.org, 116 123
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