A MUM has published a poetry book of her son's work two years after he died. 

Patricia Snook, 69, from Corfe Mullen, has published the poems of her son, Benjamin Jelley, in a new book after finding his work following his death in 2022, aged 37. 

A man with a deep love for the arts, Patricia has arranged for a publishing event to happen at the Haven Hotel, Sandbanks, on July 13 in partnership with mental health charities Mind, S.T.A.R, and Edas. 

She said: "The ultimate aim is to try and save at least one person's life that may pick up his book and read and think 'hang on a second, this makes sense' or 'this is me, I need to do something about it'.

"It's about poetry and how powerful it is just to put words onto paper. If you have some form of illness or addiction, it's a really powerful tool to have and use."

Patricia found more than 100 poems written by Ben clearing out his room after he died and decided she wanted to collate them into a book containing photographs of his work as an actor. 

Ben was described as a 'very loving, kind and gentle person' by his mum who she believed was like a 'modern Van Gogh' in that he was 'too intelligent' for this world. 

She said: "He was like a modern-day Van Gogh, he was too intelligent for this world really like a lot of people are. At school he was really clever but he would mess around, and miss out and he still got As and Bs. 

"He realised with his career choice of drama, although he loved it, it was very unstable in terms of finances. He went back to college and did a plumbing and heating course and unfortunately, he fell off scaffolding which gave him epilepsy."

After his incident, Ben lost his driving licence, job, and girlfriend and began to drink and became more reclusive due to his mental struggles. 

Although she deeply misses her son, Patricia hopes his poetry can help save the lives of others and said all funds raised from the book will go to the charities attending.