A woman refused to follow doctors advice because she didnt do needles died after falling into a diabetic coma.
Natasha Horne, 20, kept her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis secret and refused to follow medical advice which would have let her live a normal life.
Now her heartbroken parents aim to ensure her death isnt in vain by spreading awareness of, and raising funds for, diabetes issues.
Her mother, Jackie, 43, and father Stephen, 44, described how Tashas reluctance to acknowledge her illness had tragic consequences.
Jackie, who lives in Middlesbrough, said: She was opinionated but shed do anything for anybody. If friends didnt have money for lunch at school, shed buy it for them because shed rather go without. Everybody knew her. She did what she did and people knew the way she was.
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After leaving school, she briefly went to college and tried various jobs, but was still trying to find her path.
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Last year, however, her world turned upside down when Jackie, a pharmacy manager at Lloyds on the Trunk Road, persuaded her to be tested for diabetes.
Through her job knowledge, Jackie saw the signs – things like weight loss, excessive thirst and going to the toilet during the night – and insisted she was tested.
Within hours, on October 16 last year, shed been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, where her body wasnt producing enough insulin to combat ketones – organic compounds which usually lie dormant but can attack the body.
Type 1 diabetes is perfectly manageable with regular insulin injections – Teesside singer Amelia Lily is just one high profile person living with it.
But Tasha, although reluctantly cooperative at the start, quickly retreated: I dont do needles, she said.
Not even a special cannula, meaning she didnt have to insert the needle directly into the skin, helped.
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Tash, who was Eston Park prom queen in 2014 but whod been overweight at school, started losing weight about two years ago – my first thought was is she taking drugs?, admitted Jackie. But Jackie and Stephen believe that the weight loss, and the compliments she received, clouded her judgement and made her mistakenly wary of putting weight back on by injecting.
Jackie said: For a girl covered in tattoos and piercings, she hated needles. And she was stubborn. If she didnt want to do something, she wouldnt do it.
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But we were getting so concerned because of the rapidity of the weight loss. She lost around half her body weight in two to three months. And she went from a size 22 to a size 10 in six months but she didnt see it as wrong.
With tensions growing at home, she moved in for a time with boyfriend Jordan Rich and his mam to escape what she saw as nagging – she just thought we were having a go at her – but was actually parents desperately trying to get their daughter to help herself.
Stephen said: She just didnt understand the severity of the consequences of not taking it.
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With her body short of the insulin it needed, she had three life-threatening DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) attacks. And after the third on June 8 this year, a desperate Jackie even took the five-year-old sister she doted on, Scarlett, to see her in hospital.
I told her you are not leaving us to sit with your little sister to tell her that her best friend is no longer here. She said she was going to change…
But she was 20 – shed passed the legal age, so it was all on her. We didnt get the phone calls or letters to say she was missing medical appointments. And apart from physically pinning her down, we couldnt do any more to get her to take it.
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And hardly any of her friends knew. She wouldnt wear her medical ID bracelet so if they were on a night out and she fell ill, they wouldnt know to look for an insulin pen.
She always thought it would never happen to her. She just didnt want to accept what she had – she was willing to take the risk.
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She thought she was invincible – she lived life her way.
Tragically, while staying overnight at a friends house on Saturday, August 22, Tasha died after a suspected diabetic coma. Some of her organs are being donated for diabetic research – it was a no-brainer, says Jackie.
Hundreds of pounds have also been raised for Diabetes UK through a GoFundMe page. And everyone attending her funeral on Thursday, September 6 at 2pm in St Hildas Church, Grangetown, will get a Diabetes UK blue ribbon to wear.
Jackie said: Weve got to focus on this now – even if its to help the younger generation appreciate the seriousness of it, and not to feel its something to be embarrassed about.
More help for parents would be good too. When a young person is diagnosed, most of the education goes to that person – especially with someone like Tasha because she wasnt a kid. Its only because of my job I suspected – that first attack could have been her last.
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Its all about acceptance and education. You can get it any time in life and it doesnt have to be hereditary. Even adults are approaching me saying I didnt know you could die from diabetes.
We tried everything we could. Now, while we cant bring her back, we can help make people aware.
I used to order her medication for her to ensure she had it to hand, then Id dispatch it and bring it home. The one thing I couldnt do was put it in her body.
Her death was totally preventable but, looking back, I dont know what more we could have done.
Now, if we can save one life, or prevent one set of parents having to go through what were going through, itll be worth it.
Shed be horrified were telling everybody about it by doing this but if we can save anyone from having to sit here, doing things like this…thats what we want.
Ive referred people through my work and its helped them their life. Its heart-breaking I couldnt do it for her.
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