AN art gallery assistant who wrongly thought he was suffering from cancer jumped to his death from the roof of a block of flats.

During the last two days of his life, doctors had assured Mr Stephen Neild from Prestwich that he did not have the disease. "But he wouldn't believe it," his wife, Collette, told an inquest in Manchester on Friday.

Mrs Neild, of Randlesham Street, Prestwich, said based on research she believed her husband, who worked at the Lowry Gallery in Manchester, had been suffering from a psychotic illness, known as somatic delusional disorder, which led him to having an impenetrable belief that he had bowel cancer. The inquest heard the couple had been together for several years but only married in Rome seven months before Mr Neild's death in April last year.

Mrs Neild said: "It was only a couple of days before the tragedy that he mentioned he had cancer. Before that, he alluded to having stomach pains. But I think he had been thinking it was cancer for some months."

Mr Neild (37) died from multiple injuries after throwing himself of the top of 11-storey high flats in Sandyhill Court, Blackley.

Coroner Mr Leonard Gorodkin said notes left by Mr Neild showed he intended to kill himself. A postmortem confirmed Mr Neild did not have cancer.

Mr Gorodkin said: "This was a man who was tormented and couldn't be consoled by his doctors or his wife. It seems to me he did have some condition that possibly was treatable but hadn't been identified in time."

The coroner recorded a verdict that Mr Neild took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed.