THE sister of a man who went missing from a mental health unit has pledged her support to help him through his dark days. Sarah Beck said she and her family would help and support her brother after his disappearance from the unit. As reported, an investigation was launched after Wayne Beck, a manic depressive, went missing from a mental health unit he was living in.

Mr Beck, 37, of Grimsby, has previously been described as being a high risk of killing or seriously injuring someone.

He had been given two indefinite hospital orders and was an inpatient at St Andrew's Place in west Hull when he went missing on Monday.

He was found the following day after police released an appeal, which did not mention where he was living. Sarah Beck, 39, of Grimsby, said she and her family had been very upset by some of the cruel comments which had been posted on Facebook about her brother. "He was found and the only person he was hurting was himself," she said. "It's awful, what he has been through. He has put himself through it and he is not well at all. He hates himself for everything he has done. "He's not proud of any of it. He's a likeable lad but he punishes himself. He is now back in hospital, living in Hull and is on medication. He is under the care of the NHS. "I feel really upset about it all but he is getting treatment. It's going to take a time to get him sorted. It's going to be like this for the rest of his life. He needs stabilising." Miss Beck said that, at the moment, her brother was "shutting himself off a little bit" and was not talking to his family. "He feels he needs to get his head together," she added. "I have been helping him all his life. We all have. We are just going to give him the love and support to help him get through it." She said that the Facebook taunts had left her thinking that "nobody appreciated the feelings of the family and the history behind it all" concerning the incident. She said the experience of reading the comments, many of which were later removed, was "horrible". He had been punished for his previous offences and they had been dealt with, she added.

Police officers stressed that Mr Beck did not pose a risk to anyone but himself.

A spokeswoman for Humber NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health services, said an investigation into his disappearance from the unit in St George's Road has now been launched.

The spokeswoman said: "It is not appropriate for an NHS organisation to comment on individual patients or the circumstances of their care.

"We can, however, confirm that we take the safety of the people who use our services, our staff and the wider community extremely seriously and are currently investigating an incident at one of our inpatient rehabilitation units earlier this week.

"The unit involved is an open unit."

In 2009, Beck was given an indefinite hospital order for hitting two men with a claw hammer as he attempted to rob Littlefields restaurant on Grimsby's Littlefield Lane.

At the time, doctors told the court there was a high risk of Wayne Beck killing or seriously harming someone if he remained in the community. Two consultants had diagnosed Mr Beck with schizoaffective disorder with manic depressive tendencies.

The following year, he was given another hospital order for holding a knife to a woman's neck during a robbery at the Spar Shop on Laceby Road. It happened two weeks before the hammer attack, but he was not caught for more than a year.

Mr Beck was previously jailed for eight years for robbing a post office in Burwell, near Louth, in 1998, during which an elderly couple were tied up, gagged and slashed with a knife.

In 2010, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder while being treated at the Humber Centre, a medium-secure unit in Willerby.

It is believed he has remained in East Yorkshire since then, despite coming from Grimsby, where he lived in Eskdale Way.

Detective Inspector Pat Goulden, from Humberside Police, said: "As part of a missing person's investigation we evaluate risk to the missing person or members of the public. In this case it was felt that he posed no risk to anyone but himself."

The Humber NHS Foundation Trust website describes St Andrew's Place as a rehabilitation unit for people suffering from "severe and enduring mental illness", particularly schizophrenia.

It says: "The aim of the service is to restore people to their optimal physical, cognitive, psychological and social functioning following a breakdown caused by a mental disorder."

The unit says it helps patients to restore damaged functions, compensate for lost functions and take control over their own lives.

VIEW PICTURE GALLERIES www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/pictures

IT RAISED almost £100,000 through its Big Red Heart Appeal in just four years, and upwards of £300,000 over its lifetime, but sadly the heart of the Grimsby District Health Care Charity has stopped beating.

Over the years the charity was able to provide countless pieces of vital equipment for Grimsby's Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital, undoubtedly saving many lives.

But it will be perhaps for the Big Red Heart appeal that the charity will be best remembered.

Launched in 2010, it aimed to raise £2 million to develop a coronary angiography suite at Grimsby's hospital, with a new catherterisation lab where numerous procedures would be carried out.

It was taken on as the Grimsby Telegraph's official campaign that year, with regular stories and appeals designed to give it the coverage it needed to succeed in its vast fundraising efforts.

A similar campaign in the previous year saw more than £150,000 raised to provide essential beds and equipment to aid bowel cancer patients. The Big Red Heart appeal itself raised £93,500 but it is thought the charity itself raised upwards of £300,000 for equipment.

The money raised by the appeal will go towards a test bed at the new unit when it is built.

It was first launched by Ron Kitching in the late 1990s after he had a heart attack and underwent major surgery that included a quadruple heart bypass.

Speaking shortly after the launch, Ron said: "It's been brilliant so far and we need people to keep donating and keep getting involved because every penny will go towards new equipment."

Along the way, the appeal was not short of support, with scores of people taking on challenges and organising events to help.

Among them were Neil Corry, of Scartho, who took on the gruelling Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon last year, and Sam Jensen, of Cleethorpes, raised almost £500 when she took on the Milton Keynes Marathon in 2012.

A Bollywood night was held at Cleethorpes Memorial Hall, while BBC talent show star Lee Mead performed at the Grimsby Auditorium in a fundraising night.

But, on announcing the winding down of the charity on Monday, trustees said the charity had ultimately never recovered from Ron's death last year.

Grimsby District Health Care Charity's charity shop, in Freeman Street in Grimsby, closed its doors on Friday for the final time.

Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph following the news of the charity coming to an end, general manager Vonnie Johnson said staff and volunteers were "devastated".

"There has simply been nobody to take his (Ron's) place with his level of dedication; that's the top and bottom of it," she said.

"The charity has run its course, but over the years it has provided some fantastic new equipment.

"Hopefully, now the hospital will name the suite or a piece of equipment after Ron. He deserves that because he dedicated his life to this charity."

Karen Griffiths, chief operating officer at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, thanked the charity for its "invaluable" support.

"The trust is grateful to everyone involved with the charity over the years both past and present," she said.

"Without their help and continuous commitment to the cause and passion to the benefiting of local patient care, we would have been very limited as to what additional items we could buy with the funding we already had.

"The additional support often brings the meaningful things to patient comfort, privacy and dignity to the care provided.

"There is no doubt this support has been greatly appreciated by staff and patients locally."

VIEW PICTURE GALLERIES www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/pictures

RESIDENTS have welcomed news the practices of a North East Lincolnshire mental health care provider will be examined by a council scrutiny team.

As reported, the Care Quality Commission discovered a catalogue of failings after visiting three of five properties in the area run by Carmand.

In February, inspections were carried out at Amber House, in Grimsby Road, Humberston, and Topaz House and Sapphire House, in Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, as reported.

And a report of its findings published last month found, among other things, that staff using "unlawful or excessive control" to restrain patients and two new members of staff being left to care for four people with very complex needs, including a history of self-harm.

The CQC is currently carrying out further follow-up inspections at Sapphire and Topaz.

Many of the issues highlighted in the reports were attributed to a lack of adequate training – something which Carol Faniyi, forensic psychologist practitioner and director of Carmand, said is being addressed.

However, North East Lincolnshire Council leader Chris Shaw told those attending a residents' meeting to discuss the report, he had ordered the matter to be brought before a scrutiny panel as there had been so many complaints.

Councillor Shaw was today unavailable for comment. However, Councillor Stephen Harness, who was among a number of councillors attending the meeting, confirmed this to be the case.

Others included Mick Burnett, John Fenty, Hazel Chase and Peter Wheatley, who chaired the meeting.

Councillor Harness said: "What we decided to do was to take it to scrutiny so we can do a comparison study.

"We will compare them to other providers and get a general feel for how provision works in general.

"We will not be looking at Carmand in isolation. We are getting a picture of how provision workers with other providers."

An NELC spokesman said the matter was still at an early stage and no date for a meeting had been set.

She said: "At an informal meeting between councillors, local people and representatives from Carmand, a request was made for some matters discussed to be considered by the council's Health Scrutiny Panel.

"This request will be processed in the usual way, but it's too early to go into any further detail at this time."

A spokesperson for the residents who attended the meeting said: "We were grateful to see so many councillors at the meeting, including the council leader, which is indicative of the situation.

"The CQC has found failings but Carmand continues.

"The outcome of the meeting was positive, as we hope being referred to the council's scrutiny panel alongside CQC's continued investigation will lead to improvements for both staff and clients, and reassure local residents."

AN IMMINGHAM busker is hoping it will be second time lucky in this year's X Factor competition– and is now within touching distance of the live auditions after impressing in the initial rounds.

Joel Smith, 18, of Bluestone Lane, took a leaf out of Ella Henderson's book – arguably the area's most successful ever contestant – and daringly sang his own original song at a mobile audition in Hull before being asked to perform again at the Manchester call-backs on Sunday, May 4.

As previous reported by the Grimsby Telegraph, hopefuls who have made it this far have been told they may get a call in the next four to six weeks offering them the chance to sing in front of an all-star judging panel.

And, while Joel may find out sooner if his footage really impresses ITV producers, he still faces an agonising wait like the rest of them.

He managed to sneak in as one of the last singers at Hull and sang his own tune Pixie Dust, a personal song about a previous relationship.

When he was interviewed at the call-back stage, there was a lot of interest around the subject and inspiration for the song as well as the fact that he has been busking and playing gigs for the last year or so.

The Franklin College student said: "Every week I'm doing gigs but I do a lot of busking as well and I once made £90 while playing outside Freshney Place for two hours which isn't bad.

"Mainly I get great feedback and I've had a few older ladies stop me and tell me I should go on the X Factor, so let's see how this goes."

Joel plans to study music at university but says that the reality competition would be a great way to get him known and bring his own tracks to the masses.

Musically, his dad is a big inspiration but his sister also had a hand in where the young man is today.

He said: "I was playing and singing in the living room one time and my sister secretly filmed me performing and then posted it on Facebook.

"Luckily it got a load of likes and helped make me more confident, so I can probably put this down to her.

"I auditioned for the X Factor last year but they said I sounded too much like Marcus Mumford (lead singer from band Mumford & Sons) but I don't see that as a bad thing and I love his band – we just happen to sound alike when we sing.

"Hopefully this year will be different because I would love to get in front of the judges.

"I'd love to know what Simon thought of my songs, so working with him would be great.

But, obviously, I'd like to meet Cheryl, too.

"I do music for the love of it – because I need to do it."

THE wife of a walker who died after he fell while climbing England's highest mountain has spoken of her heartbreak at his tragic death.

She desperately tried to telephone him when he failed to return from his climbing trip and later endured the agony of waiting for news of him while rescue teams tried to find him.

Malcolm Blowman, 67, of Little Carlton, near Louth, had set out alone to climb the famous Scafell Pike in the Lake District.

His wife, who was with him for a caravan holiday, raised the alarm after he failed to return. His body was eventually found after a major search operation.

She had not wanted him to go out climbing because, in an ironic twist, she remembered a previous scare many years earlier when he was several hours late back from a climb in Scotland.

Marion Blowman, who was married to Malcolm for 43 years, said: "My dear husband decided he would climb Scafell Pike. He liked to give himself a challenge. He seemed to be drawn to the mountains every so often. We stayed at Bassenthwaite, near Keswick, in a touring caravan."

Mr Blowman set off on his walk at 8.45am on Wednesday.

His wife, 67, said: "I first phoned him at about midday to see how he was getting on but his phone went straight to voice mail. I wasn't unduly concerned because I thought there would be no signal.

"I phoned him every hour and started to get really worried. I thought something may have happened. At about 7pm, I thought: 'It will start getting dark'. I phoned the police.

"They got in touch with the mountain rescue people. The police and the mountain rescue people were wonderful. They kept me informed and were quite concerned about me as well."

About 20 rescue workers and dogs went up on to the mountain and thermal imaging cameras were used. An overnight RAF search and rescue team was called in.

"They found him at about 11am," said Mrs Blowman. "He had fallen 200ft in a gully. The mountain rescue people did go down to him.

"They knew it was him because he had his wallet with him. It was too dangerous for them to get him out. They used a Sea King helicopter to winch him out.

"That was ironic because he had been a helicopter pilot himself. He loved flying. It was helicopters to the last."

Mr Blowman was born in Bridlington and lived in Driffield, East Yorkshire, before training at the Army apprentice school in Harrogate. He joined the Army in December 1962, becoming part of the Royal Signals.

He learned to fly while in the Army and took part in shooting competitions. He became a top shooter, including being one of the Army Eight. He won the Whitehead Cup for shooting.

One of his proudest moments was when he won the Methuen Cup for shooting.

Mr Blowman had lived at Little Carlton since March 1975.

He worked as a pilot for Bond Helicopters at Strubby, near Alford, and was later a helicopter pilot for Schreiner Airways. He was based in Cameroon for about six years and later worked self-employed with his wife for their company, Carlton Flying Ltd.

Mr Blowman had two children, Richard, 42, and Catherine, 39.

He loved crosswords and one was in his rucksack when his body was found. He joined the Louth group of the University Of The Third Age and was leader of its aviation group.

Mr Blowman was on Great and Little Carlton Parish Council for years. He helped set up a neighbourhood watch scheme in Little Carlton and was a member of Mensa.

He had been membership secretary of the Carltons social club. Mr Blowman enjoyed giving to charity and helping to set questions for quiz sessions.

Catherine said: "He showed us right from wrong. He had always been committed to my mum. He was a good dad and a good husband."

GRIMSBY Town fans have given a mixed reaction to Andy Cook's departure at www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport

The 23-year-old striker was released by the Mariners earlier this month after a frustrating campaign in front of goal.

Despite topping the Town scoring charts the previous season, Cook was allowed to leave – a decision the forward told the Telegraph he expected.

For much of the 2013/14 season supporters have been divided over the merits of the frontman, and that continued following his exit.

'Westo' was among those to log on to disagree with manager Paul Hurst's decision.

He said: "Gutted mate – thought you deserved a new contract and a chance. Hope wherever you go, you are successful. All the best."

'Alstep' agreed that Cooky deserved another deal, saying: "Think Andy would have done a lot better with more playing time – sorry to see him go."

"Some team out there is getting a bargain for nothing and 15+ goals per season to boot," added Sport.

However, some supporters backed the decision and were disappointed with the former Barrow man's displays across the season.

Pontoonergy remarked: "You say you expected it – that tells me Andy that you didn't fight for your right to keep your place in the team. So good luck for your future in football."

Streaky130 felt that Cook's hold-up play – in comparison to striker Lenell John-Lewis – was the main reason for his lack of game-time, and exit.

He commented: "I liked Cooky but his hold up play wasn't as good as LJL so you can see where PH was coming from.

"Had he been able to keep hold of the ball a bit better and bring others into play then he would have played a lot more last season because he obviously has a better eye for goal than 'The Shop'."

GRIMSBY Town's boss admits he is "hopeful, rather than confident" that Scott Neilson will sign a new deal with Grimsby Town.

The winger returned from his holiday last week to be met with a contract offer from the Mariners for the 2014/15 campaign.

Five days on, the 27-year-old is yet to decide whether to accept those terms – and Paul Hurst remains none the wiser.

"I'm hopeful, rather than confident, of Scott agreeing a deal," Hurst told the Telegraph.

"It's not the be-all and end-all, but you have to build relationships with players.

"They're the ones that go out and perform, and if they're really unhappy with you as a manager you're not going to get the best out of them.

"With Scott, there's an understanding between us that perhaps he hasn't always had with other managers.

"He's enjoying his football, which is important to Scott, and he comes in with a smile on his face.

"We've even had conversations recently where he's said that he enjoys coming in to training!"

After netting six goals and creating 11 others during his first full season with the Mariners, Neilson's return would represent a real boost for the club and its supporters.

"He's a fans' favourites and he gives the crowd a lift at times when the ball reaches him and he starts running at defenders," Hurst commented

"It's not always going to come off for him, but it's certainly exciting for the crowd to watch.

"So hopefully we will get positive news on that one because I do see him as a bit of a game-changer that not all teams are fortunate enough to have."

Hurst also believes that location won't be a problem after the Enfield-born wideman moved to the area with his girlfriend last year.

"He's relocated up here, and I don't think that's an issue at this moment in time," he added.

"They're quite happy in the area, so that's another positive and gives me hope that it will be a positive outcome.

"I don't think there's any great desire to get down south for him at the moment."

RELEASED Scott Kerr thought he had done enough to earn a new deal at Grimsby Town.

The 32-year-old is on the look-out for the seventh club of his career after being one of eight players let go following the crushing play-off defeat to Gateshead.

But speaking to the Telegraph, the combative midfielder felt he 'deserved' another year at the club he joined only last summer.

"It was a big disappointment not to be offered a new deal," he said.

"Being honest about it, I felt I deserved another year – I felt I'd done enough.

"Personally, I thought I had a decent season, although as a team we just fell short at the end.

"I had a bit of a slow start after picking up a niggling injury, but once I got into my stride, I felt I did well.

"I was part of the 15-game unbeaten run that we went on and I felt that my form was getting better and better before my injury, but I felt I finished the season quite strongly."

He continued: "To be told that I wasn't getting anything was tough, but then I don't know too much about what's going on behind the scenes in terms of finances.

"Obviously I came last year and maybe I was one of the top earners, I'm not too sure. Maybe it was going to be either me or Craig (Disley) as two of the more experienced players.

"I had a good chat with the gaffer and it was weird because he had a lot of good things to say to me – apart from the fact I wasn't getting a deal!

"He couldn't give me a definite reason why, but he did say that I am going to be a big hole to fill, which I know are only words at the end of the day, but it does mean a lot.

"He came across genuine and I understand his position, so I'll take that and move on."

Now a free-agent, Kerr is mulling over a number of options and revealed he's considering going down the part-time route.

"I'll keep fighting," he added. "I know after this season that I've still got a couple more years left in me yet.

"I've had a decent enough career and played over 500 games in total and have given my all in every one of them."

"It's early days but my agent is already on it and I've had a few enquiries and a few discussions.

"I might go down the part-time route and look to do something else as well because I do a bit of kids coaching and really enjoy that, so we'll see.

"I still believe that I've got enough to be a good asset to a Conference team, so it won't be a rash decision."