Uckfield man was left with 'no wife and no money' after M25 tragedy

Uckfield nurse Charno Kaur Mcgibbon, 57, also known as Charlie, was travelling with her teenager daughter on Wednesday, Feb 6, 2019 when the Suzuki Wagon R she was driving collided with two lorries.

Charlie died at the scene but her daughter escaped with minor injuries.

Husband Andre found her being treated in A&E at Kings College Hospital, London.

He said: “They couldn’t tell her about her mom, all they said to her was that her mom was taken to another hospital and they didn’t have any news.

“I had to tell her myself. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

“After I had to go home and list all the phone numbers I had to ring that morning.

“I got back home at about 4am, had a long coffee and then started the calls. I still have that list.

“I don’t know how I did those calls, but there was nobody else who could.”

As well as informing friends and family of the tragedy, many of Andre’s calls were to banks and credit card companies and although many of these organisations were helpful, some were not. The couple had run up an interest free debt of £36k on home improvements, which he was unsure he could still pay.

He said: “Suddenly I had no wife and no money apart from a little savings, and bills from all of them hitting me as fast as they could.”

With help from the NHS he was able to secure his home but it took nine months for an insurance firm to agree to payout on his wife’s policy - and only after the intervention of the coroner and Kent Police says Andre, as the company argued the accident could have been suicide.

Andre added: “The NHS came through to help with two years of Charnos’ wages, so I didn’t have to put the house up for sale.

“All the paperwork has now mostly stopped. Only two items are now outstanding. The one I understand is the car insurance for my wife’s death but the other is an ISA Charno had who will not settle with me. When all of these are sorted I will begin to have a life again.”

Court proceedings in connection with the crash are still ongoing.

He concluded:“I think maybe this is a lot of people’s story when something like this happens, deaths by so called accidents or incident or in this case a serious collision.

“They are very long winded and take time.”

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