Olive Cooke: U.K’s Oldest Poppy Seller Jumps To Her Death After Being Hounded By Charity Cold-Callers And Begging Letters

Britain’s oldest poppy seller, Olive Cooke, has jumped to her death after being overwhelmed by an incessant barrage of begging letters and cold calls from demanding charities.

The body of 92-year-old Mrs. Cooke, who sold poppies every year since the death of her husband Leslie in 1943, was found in Avon Gorge near the world-famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol last week, just two days before the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

The remarkable woman would brave the bitter elements of a winter day in Britain ever November to stand under the northwest porch of Bristol Cathedral with nothing but a blanket, a Thermos, and the posthumous medals off her Navy husband, Leslie, who was killed in the Second World War, aged 28, for company. There, in the fierce cold and biting winds, Mrs. Cooke would sell poppies from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each and every day.

It is estimated that Mrs Cooke sold more than 30,000 poppies over a 76-year period. She started selling poppies as a 16-year-old in 1938 after her father served in Gallipoli during World War One.

Last year, the poppy seller from Fishponds, Bristol, was given the Points of Light award by Prime Minister David Cameron for her “outstanding” and “inspiring” work within the community.

Yet the lady who had given so much was asked to give even more, until in the words of her close friend Michael Earley, she “lost her faith in people.”

Mrs. Cooke was one of those rare people who couldn’t say no to charities, but after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, her finances became more difficult to manage. The Mirror reports that in January of this year, she was forced to reluctantly cancel some 27 direct debits payable to charities.

Although Mrs. Cooke was already being inundated with never-ending phone calls and up to 10 charity begging letters a day before she cancelled her direct debits. When her donations stopped, things got a lot worse, and he began to receive more than 260 begging letters a month.

During this period, Mrs. Cooke voiced her concerns to a local newspaper and said she had a feeling of being “overwhelmed.”

“I read every single one but my problem is I’ve always been one that reads about the cause, then can’t say no. The stories play on people’s generosity.

“I have started to just put all the letters into a big box, and then I have to spend my Sunday afternoons sorting them all out ready for the recycling – but some weeks it takes even longer.

“I believe some of the charities must have passed my details on, as I then start getting letters from other similar causes. I also believe I am being targeted because I am elderly and people might assume I have money to spare.”

Friends of Mrs. Cooke also believe her details were sold by charities to private businesses and she was also being plagued by a series of salesmen trying to sell anything from double glazing to solar panels.

On the ThinkJessica.com website, it reveals that seven out of 10 older people in Britain — more than 6.6 million people — are targeted by scams every month, either by telephone or letter. Disturbingly, 22,000 victims replied to one scam mail shot and sent £500,000 in one day. Campaigners have long demanded an urgent revision to the postal service to prevent people being targeted. They argue that postal delivery workers can easily recognize when someone is being targeted by the increasing volume of mail victims receive or the scammers slogans on the front of the envelopes.

The National Trading Standards Scams team estimate postal scams could be netting criminals worldwide up to £10 billion a year, and many victims of these scams have attempted and committed suicide.

Mrs. Cooke’s friend Michael Earley told the Daily Mail that he believes the cold calls and letters were a major factor in Mrs Cooke’s decision to end her own life.

“She felt she had given so much and she couldn’t give any more. The phonecalls were terrible. She felt guilty. They had a bearing on her death.

“When I used to be in the flat all the time with her the phone would keep continuously ringing and sometimes she would put the phone down and it would ring again. Sometimes I had been there an hour or so and you would get the same charities ringing back.

“I don’t know who the charities were because she would always speak to them and I never interfered. She was exhausted with the situation in the end. She had done so much for other people all of the time. In the end her relations couldn’t contact her. She would not pick up the phone.”

Mrs. Cooke’s daughter Kathryn King, 61, explained that even charities her mother was already donating to would call out of the blue and ask for more. She alleges one such organization was the mental health charity Mind.

“She gave lots to charity. It was too much for her. She was getting severe depression through lack of sleep. (The charities) should not hound people who have a mental illness. She did not know how to deal with it. She wanted to help everybody.”

Mrs. Cooke’s depressive state was aggravated further when a sum of £250 she had posted to her son went missing. Her 72-year-old friend Mr. Earley called it the straw which finally broke the camel’s back.

“She lost faith in other people. When that £250 went she was not the same. She realised she couldn’t trust people.

“She could not get it out of her system. With all the charities on top it just broke the camel’s back.

“It was the constant phone calls and the constant asking for money, but she would say they need it more than me. When someone is kind hearted – they cotton-on to it.”

[Image via The Mirror]