‘It’s so important to get the message out’

Happy and devoted mum Fiona Tucker went to sleep one night and never woke up.

A photo taken on holiday in Spain about a fortnight before her death shows the 29-yearold primary school teacher with her son Cassius, and partner Abraham – a beautiful, thriving young family.

“She looks so well,” said her mum, Janice Robinson. “They were such an adorable family.”

One night in August 2018, Fiona went up to bed at their home in Canterbury while Abraham watched television downstairs.

When he later joined her, he found her lifeless. Paramedics were called, but were sadly unable to revive her.

Tragically, Fiona’s death left Cassius, then six, without a mother.

“It hit us like a bomb exploding and has changed our lives forever,” said her mum.

“I kept saying to myself, ‘how could it happen’ because she was so active and healthy?”

Fiona’s devastated family later learned she had died from an undiagnosed heart condition.

“When I tell people that up to 15 young people a week die like Fiona, they can’t believe it,” said Janice.

“That’s why it is so important to get the message out, to let people know this can happen so suddenly.

“The charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), who have been amazing to us, described it to me as like a light switch

Fiona with her partner Abraham and son Cassius being turned off.”

Fiona’s family are also anxious to raise awareness of devastating heart conditions.

“Anything to try to ensure that other families won’t have to face what we’ve faced,” said Janice.

“Fiona was a busy, working, wonderful mum. A lovely, straightforward, honest person.

“There was nothing wrong. She was WhatsApping me photos of her son’s shoes and trainers for going back to school, the evening she died.”

Janice says Cassius, now eight, still misses his mum and that the reverberations of Fiona’s death “will go on forever”.

“She’d be so proud of him,” she said.

“We take a crumb of comfort in that she did not suffer in any way, but we wouldn’t want anyone else to go through it.

“I still miss her every day.”

Fiona Tucker, 29 Fiona Tucker, who died in Canterbury in 2018, pictured on her graduation day