TWO elderly pensioners committed suicide within four days of each other, because they both believed they had nothing to live for.

Today, the deaths have been described as "a tragedy" by a leading charity.

At an inquest held yesterday, Worcestershire coroner Victor Round heard the sad stories of an 87-year-old woman and a 72-year-old man who deliberately plotted to take their own lives.

A spokesman for Age Concern in Worcester said the tragedy was that, after reaching old age, the pensioners felt there was nothing to live for.

Augusta Cale, of Kinsgbury Road, St John's, Worcester, had stockpiled painkillers and taken an overdose opf the drugs because she couldn't cope with growing old.

Mr Round, sitting at Stourport-on-Severn, heard how the widow was found dead in bed by her daughter, Jennifer Witcombe, on Monday, March 24. An empty packet of Co-proxamol was at her side.

"My mother was getting depressed and couldn't cope with old age and what that entailed," said Mrs Witcombe. "She was upset that she couldn't read any more because of bad eyesight and that she could no longer watch television," she said.

The inquest heard that Mrs Cale had spoken of suicide and had grown increasingly despondent, declining invitations to family gatherings.

Mr Round recorded a verdict that she had taken her own life.

And in a separate inquest yesterday, the coroner heard how Joseph Elvin, of St Catherine's Vale, Worcester, was found dead in a fume-filled car on Friday, March 28. In a statement read to the court, his neighbour Thomas Atkinson described how he found Mr Elvin in a Metro car close to his home shortly after 5am.

The engine was still running and a piece of pipe had been connected to the underside of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Round said: "His GP visited him on March 17 and found he was having breathing difficulties, because he was suffering from asthma, and living in absolute squalor.

"He was admitted to hospital but discharged himself."

The inquest heard that the day before he died, Mr Elvin had bought the Metro.

After his death, police searched his home and found a suicide note and a piece of hose missing from a vacuum cleaner.

Recording a verdict that Mr Elvin took his own life, the coroner said attempts to trace any next of kin had failed and the local authority would be arranging his funeral.

A spokesman for Age Concern in Worcester said: "These are very sad cases."

"More can always be done to help the elderly and Age Concern aims to provide as much information, advice and support as we possibly can."