Darius Campbell Danesh's girlfriend Lauren Cheek has opened up about the death of the beloved Pop Idol star.
In a heartfelt tribute, grief-stricken Lauren revealed that the couple were planning to marry and move to Scotland before the singer's tragic death.
Lauren admitted that the pain has been "too much" after her loving boyfriend was tragically "ripped away" from her. Darius, who studied in Edinburgh, passed away in his US apartment last August at just 41 years-old.
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Lauren shared that his cause of death was in part from an "undiagnosed heart condition" as well "inhalation of chloroethane".
The singer's girlfriend has been left heartbroken and admits she still feels like he's going to turn up at any moment.
As reported by the Mirror, Lauren said: “I still can’t believe he is gone because it was so sudden and heartbreaking. I keep thinking he is going to call me or walk through the door.
"When someone you love that intensely is ripped away from you, it’s too much. D (Darius) would tell everyone, ‘This is the woman I want to have my children with. I love her. I want to make her my wife’.
"We were planning on getting engaged towards the end of the year and then get married and have kids. There is this piece of land right next to his family’s cabin in Scotland that we fell in love with and visited multiple times."
Lauren explained that Darius's cause of death was later revealed to be "inhalation of chloroethane", but the autopsy showed his heart had also swollen to twice its normal size.
Chloroethane, commonly known as ethyl chloride, is used in petrol additives, plastics, dyes, pharmaceuticals, topical anaesthetics, and as an industrial refrigerant. Ethyl chloride became popular as an inhalant street drug in the 1980s.
The singer had been using the drug after suffering from a broken neck as a result of a car crash in 2010. His family shared that he was using chloroethane to help ease the severe pain he had been left with.
However, it ultimately contributed to his death, although the medical examiner ruled it as an 'accident'.
Brief inhalations of the drug can result in dizziness, euphoria, confusion, incoordination, hallucinations, impairment of short-term memory and narcosis.
The Scottish singer-songwriter and actor – who was known as Darius Danesh when he made his first bid for fame in ITV show Popstars in 2001 – also appeared on the first Pop Idol in 2002, finishing third behind Gareth Gates and eventual winner Will Young.
