Mum-of-three wakes to find hubby dead on couch

He had just come home from another 16-hour shift and Ashley was sick of him not being around and of the toll the long hours were having on his health and their happiness.

"He would work 16-hour shifts, seven days a week," she told The Mirror.

"When he came home that night he was a mess, I have never seen him so exhausted. I couldn't stand seeing him like that and I got angry. I was sick of it."

"I had a go at him and told him to sleep on the sofa which was stupid because I really just wanted him around more."

When she woke up in the morning, Ashley found her husband dead on the couch.  

"When I came out of the bedroom and saw him the next morning I knew something was wrong straight away. He was lying exactly where I left him," Ashley recalls.

"I walked over and touched him but he was cold and I jumped back and ran out the room."

Ashely says she "blacked out" and had to be carried back into the house by her neighbours. "I couldn't process it," the heartbroken wife says.

Following Mikey's death, Ashley found out her husband had only been working such long hours to be able to afford a holiday for their upcoming wedding anniversary. 

"Losing Mikey has changed my entire perspective on life. Life is too short to go to bed angry and not to spend every moment you can with your family," she says, before urging people to always "say I love you."

A post-mortem revealed Mikey choked in his sleep but the cause behind it is 'inconclusive', The Daily Mail reports.

This article first published in Marie Claire.