Don’t make same mistake as Amy
As accountant, 20, is killed by single ecstasy pill at festival, her parents’ heartfelt plea:
PLEASE stop and think before you make the same mistake.
That is the desperate message of the family of a 20-year- old trainee accountant who died after taking a rogue ecstasy pill in a ‘moment of madness’.
In an emotional video online, Amy Vigus’s parents said she paid the ultimate price for her mistake – and would ‘never know the pain she has caused’.
She had travelled with friends from her home in Colchester, Essex, to Elrow Town music festival in London where she took a pill she thought was MDMA, the chemical name for ecstasy.
Amy became violently ill but managed to make it home before collapsing again. Her parents performed CPR and she was taken to hospital, but she died two days later – still in her party outfit.
Her parents Kervin and Karen, and sister Abby have now released a touching video called ‘Our Amy’ showing photos of her and urging others to ‘stop and think’.
They warn: ‘ The next time you are in that moment, please, stop and think about our Amy and the consequences of her mistake on herself and her family she left behind.’
The film shows images of Amy as a child, with the family dog and on nights out. Her family said she was ‘ cheeky, mischievous, adventurous’ but added: ‘The thing we love most about our Amy is her big heart and caring nature.’
The moving video has since been viewed more than two million times. A webpage set up to raise money for Colchester hospital, where Amy was treated, had raised more than £2,000 last night.
Her father said the family ‘needed’ to release the video of her ‘ tragic story’ to warn others. He appealed to schools to give more education on the dangers of recreational drugs.
Mr Vigus, 49, said: ‘We’ve got comments from teachers saying this [video] should be in schools. Our message is out there to shock … the amount of mums that are tweeting their children to watch this.’
Amy’s sister, Abby, 24, added: ‘We know this video is raw and it’s meant to be raw, it’s emotional.’
Amy went to the festival, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, last Saturday.
In the video, her family said she arrived ‘looking as Amy always did – hair in, eyelashes on, glitter in her hair and a smile on her face’ but ‘our Amy made a mistake’. They said she took an ‘unknown substance she was led to believe was the party drug MDMA’, adding: ‘She continued to socialise and smile.
‘Then, she began to pay for her mistake. Amy’s body rejected whatever unknown substance she had taken.’
This led to her being violently sick and fitting multiple times. She managed to make it home, where she collapsed again. Her parents faced the nightmare scenario of performing CPR on their own daughter, before she was taken to hospital.
‘Amy was very, very unwell,’ they said. ‘She was taken to the intensive care unit … Our Amy fell into a coma.
‘She laid there, hair in, eyelashes on, glitter in her hair, but no smile on her face. She lay there, motionless, still and seemingly peaceful.
‘The corridors of Colchester General Hospital echoed with the cries and screams of her family members. Our Amy made a mistake. Our Amy will never smile again. Our Amy is dead. Our Amy is dead.’
The family added: ‘Our Amy had no idea it would have led to this. She will not be celebrating Christmas any more, she will not be celebrating her 21st birthday. She will not be buying her parents Mother’s or Father’s Day cards. She will never know the pain she has caused.’
The case echoes that of Leah Betts, also from Essex, who died in 1995 aged 18 after taking ecstasy. Her family released a picture of her in a coma to warn others.
Deaths from MDMA have increased in recent years. According to ONS figures in 2016, around 4.5 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds – about 279,000 – said they had used ecstasy.
There were 57 deaths from ecstasy in 2015, compared with 12 in 1993. Some charities say it is because MDMA is purer than ever.
A relative, who asked not to be named, praised Colchester hospital staff, saying each of them was ‘an absolute hero – they worked so hard in Amy’s final hours to save her’.
He said the video had been ‘challenging’ to make but that the family had tried ‘to make something positive during one of our darkest times’.
‘No idea it would lead to this’