The parents of a young mum did not have a clue their "bubbly and popular" daughter had taken cocaine before her sudden death. Their cherished child, Holly Dakin, died as a result of sudden and unexpected cardiac activity, most likely with a background of cardiac-related disease, an inquest into her death heard.
But the heartbreaking news for mum and dad, Robert and Rosemary Dakin, came as a shock. They spoke to Nottinghamshire Live after a coroner's conclusion found Holly's death was "drug-related".
"All of us didn't have a clue," said devastated Mrs Dakin, who attended the Nottingham inquest with her husband, their daughter's boyfriend, and close friends. Mr Dakin paid tribute to his daughter, adding: "She was bubbly and everyone's fun friend. She was popular. She was living in Wilford with her four children".
Holly' boyfriend, Aaron White, 41, lived with her and the children and described her as "amazing, caring, kind, an amazing mum and girlfriend". "We were happy as a family. We went to Egypt on holiday and came back for four weeks and were then going to Turkey. We had a good relationship.
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"She didn't take drugs. She went to the wrong place that night. The drug-taking that night was a one-off thing. We had planned for her 30th."
The inquest was called because there was an unnatural aspect to Holly's death after cocaine was found in her system at the time, and what impact that had had on her heart.
Toxicology tests found 29-year-old Holly had just less than twice the legal limit of alcohol in her system to drive a car, together with cocaine and a product often used to cut cocaine. The level of cocaine was not considered to be at a toxic one.
Tests showed on the "balance of probabilities" what led to a "sudden cardiac event" was an irregular heartbeat. The left side of her heart failed due to a blood clot in the main vessel, which feeds blood to the heart.
Miss Bower stressed to the family, Holly's death would have been sudden and "she would not have known anything about this process".
"I can say Holly would not have know anything about it whatsoever; this would all have happened in her sleep", she said. Holly, who had aspired to work with young people, had previously attended a hospital emergency department with chest pains but self-discharged.
Heart disease is know to be a "silent killer" because most people who have it don't have any symptoms. The coroner, speaking generally, said it had been reported that cardiovascular disease is relatively common in young cocaine users, and the affects of cocaine are exasperated by alcohol use.
Holly, a mother-of-four, who had just graduated from Nottingham Trent University, had spent most of the day before her death with a friend. They drank, ate, and prepared for a holiday, and visited a tanning salon.
She then stayed at the home of her smallest child's father after visiting his address later. At 8am, the dad of the smallest child, went to wake Holly. He believed she was not breathing and called an ambulance.
Close friend Chris McGrath told the hearing he spoke with Holly hours before and she was jovial, she was happy.
Detective Constable Ben Grayson, of Radford Road CID and the officer in the case, told the hearing: "From our point of view, in terms of the police investigation, it does not seem to suggest that Holly did not take what she took of her own free will. Therefore, it does hinder a police investigation in that respect".
Miss Bower said there was evidence of alcohol and cocaine in her system and, on the evidence she had, it did not appear to be for the first time.
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