Family heartbreak after mum collapses and dies on holiday
AMUM-OF-THREE who was due to marry her partner of 14 years has died suddenly after collapsing while on holiday with her family.
Emma Rees, 35, was walking across a field in Pembrokeshire when she suddenly collapsed and later died.
Emma and her family were on the fourth day of their holiday and had been staying at a small campsite in Solva.
Emma’s fiance Ben Fitzgerald, 37, said: “We had gone to this little campsite near Solva and everything was normal. Then one morning Emma was just walking across the fields and dropped down.
“Some people near the campsite had attempted to give her CPR with assistance from the emergency services on the phone.
“The ambulance came around six to seven minutes afterwards.”
Emma, a higher learning teaching assistant at Ysgol Y Deri in Penarth, collapsed on August 20.
She was rushed to a hospital in Haverfordwest, where medics fought to save her life for two hours.
Ben, from Roath, Cardiff, said Emma had an overactive thyroid for which she took medication, but was otherwise fit and healthy.
He spoke of his devastation and described Emma as his “soulmate”.
He said: “I was in total shock, as I am now still, really. I was just shaking uncontrollably. I remember going to the toilet to vomit. We just kept the little ones away from what was going on when it happened.
“The other people in the campsite, these strangers, were amazing and took the little ones away to look after them.”
Just days earlier, while driving to west Wales, the couple were discussing their future together.
Ben said: “We had got engaged a few years back, but we never really took it any further than that.”
He said that on the journey to Solva they discussed making it official and made some plans.
Ben said he broke the news of Emma’s death to their two children, Aneurin, seven, and Finn, five, at the hospital. Emma also had an 18-year-old son, Christopher, from a previous relationship.
Ben said: “They came to the hospital with some family and I just hugged them and told them. I told them everything. Our fiveyear-old has high-end autism. His reaction was he can’t and does not want to process it. Our seven-yearold was just heartbroken.”
Ben and Emma had been together for around 14 years, after meeting 15 years ago while working at Beechwood College in Barry.
Ben said: “Emma was just a magical, full-of-life person. She was a kind, generous, fiery and passionate person. She was a force to be reckoned with. She went out of her way to help people. Anyone who met her, particularly in a professional setting, would know that.
“She was outstanding in bringing out the best in people.”
Ben said Emma’s death is still unexplained until various test results are returned in several weeks. He said: “My children are amazingly strong and funny and they are helping me. We are all just clinging to each other now. It’s still really raw, and it’s raw and difficult for the children, too. There’s this hole in our lives now.”
Lucy Morgan, who taught with Emma at Ysgol Y Deri in Penarth, said everyone was devastated by the news of Emma’s death.
She said: “She was an amazing person. We couldn’t believe it when we heard the news.
“It is devastating and we are all so shocked.”