A GRIEVING husband has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the despair caused by insomnia after the tragic death of his wife.

Teacher Sue Greenwood, aged 43, was found hanged in a wooded area at the bottom of Haslam Park, Deane, in the early hours of December 23.

An inquest was opened and adjourned on Tuesday ahead of a full hearing, but there are believed to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.

Husband Dave Greenwood said his wife had suffered from sleep deprivation throughout her adult life and, since their dream wedding on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar in 2011, they had battled the problem together after renovating their marital home in Harpers Lane, Smithills.

“Sue would sometimes go several days without being able to sleep," he said. "It would reach a point where she was desperately tired, but still she could not sleep.

"If she could sleep, it was often during the day, which would cause enormous disruption to her life.

"It was something she had suffered from since being at school and university.

"Sue tried everything – hypnotherapy, acupuncture and CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy),” said Mr Greenwood, aged 47.

“Unfortunately, she resorted to accessing sleeping tablets, which should only be prescribed by GPs, online, and became dependent on them.

“It’s totally wrong that people can get these things on the internet, but how do you stop it?

“Ultimately, she was taking too many of them and they were making the problem worse. But she must have been desperate.

“She was a beautiful, intelligent and driven woman and what has happened is devastating.”

Mr Greenwood said he now knows sleep deprivation affects many people in all walks of life, but there is too little publicity about possible cures.

“I have only found out since Sue has died that GPs often run sleep clinics, specifically for people suffering from insomnia,” he said. "They might have helped.

"It seems insomnia is something even the medical profession seems reluctant to talk about.

"If anything positive can come out of this, it is that more people must know about insomnia as an issue and how to access coping strategies to combat it.

"I would urge anyone suffering from such a problem to be assertive with the medical services of getting help.

"I would also like something to be done about the ease at which people who are desperate can get hold of prescription drugs — containing who knows what — with the click of a button on the internet.

"In an age when you can't even buy more than two packets of paracetamol from a supermarket without being challenged, it is wrong."

Mrs Greenwood moved to Bolton more than 20 years ago after qualifying as a teacher at Edge Hill University in Lancashire.

She worked at Brandwood Street and Church Road primary schools in Bolton, Claypool in Horwich, Anderton Primary School, and rose to the position of an assisted skills teacher at Manor Road Primary School in Chorley.

She had also worked as a primary education consultant in Trafford. She had no children.

A humanist service will take place at the East Lancashire Crematorium in Cemetery Road, Radcliffe, on Friday, January 16 at 1pm.