Heartbroken parents hoping to save lives in daughter’s name
EX RUGBY STAR FUNDRAISING AFTER DEATH OF FELICIA, 22, FROM EPILEPSY
WHEN she was 21, Felicia Boothroyd suddenly suffered her first seizure while she slept ... and within 10 months epilepsy had claimed her life.
The tragedy has left her Huddersfield family utterly bereft – but they are now doing all they can to ensure other families don’t have to endure the same anguish.
Felicia’s parents, former rugby league star Alan Boothroyd – who played for Huddersfield, Bradford, Dewsbury and Keighley – and his wife, Tracy, have set up Fee’s Fund to buy wrist monitors which give an early warning of an epileptic attack, in a bid to avoid more young lives being lost.
Epilepsy experts warn that countless young people are vulnerable to epilepsy which can often start in their late teens or early 20s and the reasons why seizures suddenly begin often remain a mystery, although triggers could include stress, sleep deprivation or hormonal changes.
For Alan, Tracy and their other children Rachel, 32, and Zac, 28, life will never be the same since they lost Felicia, who died at her Dalton home on August 17 last year. It’s still very difficult for heartbroken Tracy and Alan to talk about the 22-year-old who was exceptionally kind, loving and lit up every room with her dazzling personality.
“Fee was born on New Year’s Day 1997 and was always so bright, bubbly, caring deeply for others,” said 54-year-old Alan. “She loved animals dearly and when she was nine announced she was becoming a vegetarian and she stuck to it.”
Felicia, who was a student at Almondbury High and then both Greenhead College and Huddersfield New College, was studying forensic psychology at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle.
During the long summer holidays she worked with disabled people at Fixby Lodge care home in Brackenhall and Alan said: “She absolutely loved the job because she was so compassionate and caring. She spoke to absolutely anybody she could – mind you, Fee really could talk!”
Felicia’s boyfriend, Rob, lives in Almondbury and she was especially close to his sister, Jo, who has Down’s Syndrome.
Tracy, 56, said: “Fee used to go everywhere with Jo. They were just so close.”
Big-hearted Felicia had her head shaved to raise £800 for Kirkwood Hospice and had been on a couple of the charity’s Midnight Memory Walks.
Felicia’s seizures only happened when she was asleep and the first was in November 2018 when she was in Newcastle. She woke and immediately discovered she’d badly bitten her tongue. Felicia realised it was a seizure and in the months that followed spoke to Tracy about her fears epilepsy would one day claim her life.
Hospital scans didn’t give any indication as to why Felicia had suddenly started with the seizures and she began to take anti-epileptic medication ... but it failed to stop the fits. Felicia suffered a fatal seizure while in bed at home on August 17.
Tracy said: “You think this kind of thing would never happen to you, it just happens to other people. Well, we have now become one of those other people. I just miss Fee so much. She was always singing.”
The couple say special wrist monitors give an early indication of the onset of an epileptic attack as they pick up changes in temperature and heartbeat. The monitors can be linked to phones or pagers to alert other people in the house so they can quickly respond to make sure the sufferer is safe during the seizure and can be put in the recovery position immediately afterwards.
They launched a justgiving page (https://www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/tracy-boothroyd) which has already raised more than £9,000. Through friends and wordof-mouth they have found five young people in Huddersfield, Calderdale and Lincoln with epilepsy who will benefit from the monitors and realise there are many more out there who need them.
Tracy added: “Even people who work in the health service don’t know about the monitors so it’s absolutely vital we get the message spread far and wide. Countless numbers of teenagers and young people are at risk of the sudden onset of epilepsy and the dangers that can cause them. Our mission now is to do all we can to mitigate those risks and save as many lives as possible, giving other families peace of mind.”
The charity SUDEP – which stand for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy – says many deaths can never be fully explained, but adds: “Because many epilepsy-related deaths occur overnight with people found lying face down there is speculation that this position may interfere with breathing and contribute to the deaths.”
Each monitor costs £900 plus a £30 a month subscription fee and Fee’s Fund will pay for the first 18 months subscription for those it donates.
The Just Giving fundraising tally