Heartbreak of the father who will never hold his beloved girl again

SMILING broadly for the camera, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s excitement was plain for all to see as she laughed and joked at the start of what she had hoped would be ‘her best summer ever’.

The 15-year-old gave a double thumbs-up, made peace signs and jokily waved about her new set of long, white nails, which she had just had done specially for the holiday, in a video taken on the flight to the South of France.

The scenes of fun, shot on a mobile phone shortly after boarding the flight to Nice by her best friend Bethany who was sitting beside her, now stand as a haunting reminder of the life full of promise and happiness which Natasha could – and should – have gone on to enjoy.

Indeed, the 15-second clip is the last footage which Natasha’s family have of her. Tragically, she had a cardiac arrest on the one hour and 50 minutes British Airways flight after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame seeds ‘ hidden’ in the dough of a baguette she’d eaten at a Heathrow branch of Pret A Manger, before take-off.

The video was released yesterday after the inquest into the teenager’s death ended with stinging criticism of Pret’s practices from the coroner and, amid their unimaginable grief, dignified calls from Natasha’s family for food labelling laws to be changed to avoid ‘ Russian roulette’ being played with anyone else’s life.

Her millionaire father Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, 53, mother Tanya, 51, and 15-year-old brother Alex brought a silver-framed photograph of Natasha to each of the inquest’s five days and placed it beside them as they listened to the harrowing evidence and relived her last moments.

There were, understandably, times when it became too much for them to bear and their tears flowed. Yesterday was no exception.

After delivering his verdict, coroner Dr Sean Cummings turned to the family and addressed them directly, saying he could not imagine what it had been like for them on the day of Natasha’s death. Mr EdnanLaperouse sobbed the single word ‘terrible’ in reply.

Earlier, Mr Ednan-Laperouse had released a family statement, describing life without their ‘beloved girl’.

‘It’s a daily battle and the pain is indescribable. Everything we say and do is a reminder that she isn’t with us; her empty bedroom, school uniform hanging in her wardrobe, her holiday bag packed for her holiday in Nice has never been unpacked. We can’t bear to.’

Their home, he said, had been ‘quite noisy with laughter, joking and teasing’. Natasha, who loved horse riding and ice-skating, had a ‘great sense of humour, a contagious laugh and could reduce a whole room to tears of laughter in minutes’, he said.

There were plenty of tears of sorrow outside court yesterday as the inquest drew to a close. Natasha’s brother Alex carried a large photographic portrait of his sister on her 15th birthday. In a fur-trimmed hood, she’s smiling that same, optimistic smile that beamed for the camera in that last video on the plane. It is a heartbreaking image.

Gathering his composure, Mr Ednan-Laperouse – founder of the Wow Toys company – first thanked the coroner for how he handled the inquest and expressed the family’s gratitude to Dr Pearson Jones, the junior doctor on board the plane who’d tried in vain to save Natasha’s life. ‘This has been an incredibly difficult week for us as a family, but the process has shed light on very important issues that led to Natasha’s death, not just for us as Natasha’s family, but for all allergy sufferers,’ he said.

‘Our beloved daughter died in a tragedy that should never have happened and we believe that the inquest has shown that she died because of inadequate food labelling laws.

‘We were also shocked to learn that there have been a number of previous serious allergic incidents, involving sesame seeds in Pret a Manger food, before our daughter died.

‘It feels to us that if Pret a Manger were following the law, then the law was playing Russian roulette with our daughter’s life.’ So how did this tragedy come about? Natasha, a popular girl who wanted to pursue a career in law, had developed a number of allergies – including to dairy, banana and nuts – and asthma over the course of her short life. She’d experienced her first reaction to sesame seeds at around the age of two, the inquest at West London Coroner’s Court heard.

Her father said she put ‘her trust in food labelling’ and the family as a whole adapted to accommodating her allergies. They carried and used medications when needed and they ‘sought scrupulously to avoid allergens in foodstuffs so as to avoid the prospect of an allergic reaction’.

It was in such a state of alertness that Natasha, her father and her friend Bethany had set off for Nice for a four night-stay