Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I saw tiny bulge at side of her throat & knew Sherry must have choked.. our beautiful girl was gone..
THE family kitchen overlooking beautiful Orlock bay in Co Down is normally filled with laughter, singing and the incredible aroma of cooking creations.
But following the death of teaching assistant Sherry Campbell her haven is now filled with the heady scent of lilies, tokens of love for the young woman who choked to death as her parents slept, unaware, upstairs.
For the last 18 days Sherry’s loved ones have tried to work out how to come to terms with such a tragic accident as the reality of her passing presses increasingly harder.
But as they take one unsteady step after another, it seems this gentle woman’s quiet strength is helping them in the most remarkable way.
For Sherry’s death at just 29 has given her community an almighty wake-up call over the dangers of choking and now they are taking action to try to prevent it happening to others.
Their cry for help has triggered fundraising of around £200 a day which will allow them to bring knowledge and equipment to Northern Ireland that could save lives when the simple task of eating goes disastrously wrong.
For mum Fionuala, 60, the only thing getting her through is the belief Sherry would want her to survive her grief and help others in a practical way.
She said: “Sherry wouldn’t want me or her dad to give up. She was such a kind girl with the most lovely, sunny disposition but she was also very strong and capable.
“She’d always find a solution. She had a maturity people didn’t grasp until they needed her help.
“Sherry was always the first to help others and she’d have been humbled by the attention her death has received.
“But she was also a practical girl and wouldn’t want people to be frightened by what happened to her or paranoid about eating, so helping others makes sense to us.”
Four months after a relationship ended Sherry had found her sunshine again. She was back at her job as a teaching assistant at Strangford College, Carrowdore, following the summer break and life was looking bright.
Devoted girlfriends, family, travel and cooking helped her get through and she had been experimenting with recipes her family and friends enjoyed, packing their freezers with tasty curries and chillis before turning her attention to a new hobby, baking. Indeed just hours before she died, Sherry had made her family a steak dinner with all the trimmings.
She had no idea it would be her last gift to her parents, her last moment around the table with them.
For tragically her culinary expertise would provide the very food that would take her life as her parents slept through the late night crisis that unfolded and ended in such speed.
Fionuala added: “Sherry died in the room where we spent so much of our time, our happiest times – our kitchen.
“She loved food and loved to cook. She’d really taken over from me on that front and I believe she would have gone on to build a legacy in cooking.
“We’d sit for hours pouring over recipes, planning meals and making lists of ingredients.
“Sherry had been a foodie from the youngest age, even eating mussels and stuffed crabs legs when she was just a toddler.
“As long as it was good food, properly farmed and well prepared, she’d try it and cook it – for Sherry cooking a meal was an offer of her love to everyone she fed.
“But a quick snack before she went to bed ended everything. The accident was so simple, so devastating and now we know very much avoidable.
“In the end we placed three of Sherry’s favourite recipes in her coffin, Mary Berry’s easy chicken curry, massaman curry and chili chicken, plus a bag of dulse which she just loved. They are tucked in with her alongside letters from her girlfriends.”
Fionuala told how she was woken around 4am on September 7 by her husband Shannon.
She said: “I can still hear the awful sound of Shannon screaming for me after he found Sherry in the kitchen. Our beautiful girl was standing against the sink, her upper body slumped over it.
“As Shannon tried to help her I ran to our neighbour hoping that she’d be OK. I just couldn’t believe she could be dead if she was still standing.
“But she was lifeless, our girl was gone and nothing could be done to bring her back to us.”
As the Campbells waited for the police and ambulance to arrive, their home filled with friends and neighbours, weeping, shocked and unable to make sense of what they saw before them. Fionuala said: “Shannon and I lay down on the floor beside our