HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE WITHOUT MEGAN?
Mum tells of heartbreak as family prepare to lay teen’s ashes to rest
THE family of a teenage girl who died after being plied with drugs by two men have spoken of their enduring pain as they prepare to lay her to rest.
Megan Bannister‘s ashes will be buried in Leicester’s Saffron Hill cemetery tomorrow, a year after Jason Burder and Adam King were jailed for their roles in her death.
Megan was cremated at the chapel at Gilroes Cemetery in July last year.
Her mum and dad, Carol and Tony, said the family has been saving up ever since for a fitting headstone to give her a proper memorial.
In the first interview since the tragedy, Carol said the family’s pain and heartache is never-ending.
“Even now, I keep saying to myself ‘how am I going to live without her?’” she said.
“We have to keep going for the other children. I try as best as I can, but when I go to bed at night I always talk to her to tell her everything that’s going on and she is the first person I think of when I wake up.
“I had Megan with me for 16 years. I’m 50 now and all I can think is that I will have to live the rest of my years without her.”
THE family of Megan Bannister have described the enduring pain of their loss as they prepare to finally lay her to rest.
Megan’s ashes will be buried in Leicester’s Saffron Hill cemetery tomorrow – a year after two men, Jason Burder and Adam King, were jailed for their roles in her death.
Her family hopes friends and wellwishers will join them at the interment ceremony to remember the 16-year-old, who was working hard at school to achieve her dream of training to be a midwife.
Megan, who was one of eight children, was cremated at the chapel at Gilroes cemetery in July last year.
The family has waited until now to lay her to rest because they have been saving up for her headstone.
In the meantime, her ashes have remained at the family home in the Saffron Lane area.
Mum Carol, 50, said: “We know we need to lay her to rest, not for just for us but for other people who would like to go there to see her in her final resting place.
“I keep saying to myself ‘how am I going to live without her?,’ but we have to keep going for our children. We have to be strong for all of them.
“I try as best as I can, but when I go to bed at night I always talk to her to tell her everything that’s going on and she is the first person I think of when I wake up.
“I’ve lost my mum and dad and other members of my family, but to lose one of your children is different.
“I had Megan with me for 16 years. I’m 50-year-old now, coming up on 51, and all I can think is that I will have to live the rest of my years without her.
“She would walk into a room and it would light up. I was so proud of her.
“She knew what hard work was and she was determined to become a midwife.
“She never wanted to take a day off school because she was determined to have a 100 per cent attendance record and knew how important her education was. She would tell her friends they needed to go to school too.”
Megan took – voluntarily or unwittingly – a large dose of ecstasy provided by Burder and King, both then aged 28, on the evening of Saturday, May 13 last year.
She then fell ill, lapsing in and out of consciousness. Burder and King did nothing to help her.
Instead, the pair then bundled the dead or dying teenager, who had never taken drugs before, into Burder’s car.
They took a meandering four-hour route through the Leicestershire countryside, stopping only to buy beer and cigarettes and to search online for prostitutes.
When the car collided with a motorcycle in Desford Road, Enderby, witnesses spotted Megan lying on the back seat, covered in a coat.
Those witnesses removed the teenager, who had unexplained strangulation marks and bruises on her body, and tried in vain to resuscitate her.
Burder and King were completely unmoved by Megan’s condition and made no attempt to help them.
Also, Burder’s DNA was later found on Megan’s body and clothing, indicating that he had had some form of sexual activity with her.
Police officers called at the family home to break the news.
However, they first had to confirm their suspicion that the body in the car was Megan.
Carol said: “I heard the door and got up to answer it, but Kirsten got there first and opened it and there were two police officers there. My first thought was ‘only Megan is out of the house at the moment.’
“I can’t remember exactly what they said. There was something about a crash
and a girl on the back seat of the car.”
The police officers asked the family if Megan had a tattoo.
She did and the family told the officers it read “love the life you live”.
That motto, which has been engraved on her headstone, matched the one the police had found on the body of the girl in the car.
Carol said: “Megan always said this, ‘love the life you live.’ She meant you should enjoy every moment.
“I sat there in shock - not wanting to believe it.
“We just wanted to see her and the police took us to Leicester Royal Infirmary the next afternoon to identify her. I kept saying to myself ‘it’s not her, it’s not her,’ but as soon as I walked into the room I could see it was Megan.
“She was a very strong girl, very emotional and would always stick up for herself and for others, but on the night she died she wasn’t able to stand up for herself because of the drugs those men gave her.”
Tony, 54, has been sleeping downstairs alongside his daughter’s ashes.
He said: “I thought nothing could ever happen to Megan. The dreams I have about her are still really bad.
“She is here and then, when I wake up, I remember she is gone.
“We have saved up for the headstone and waited for it to be made and now we can lay her to rest. Megan had a lot of friends and we hope they can be with us at her interment.”
King, of Waltham Avenue, was jailed for four-and-a-half years for the offence of being concerned in supplying the ecstasy to Megan in the hours before her death.
Burder, of Braunstone Avenue, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to supplying her with ecstasy, as well as other drugs offences not related to Megan.
The exact cause of Megan’s death has never been established, but a pathologist at the men’s trial said it was either strangulation , an ecstacy overdose or a combination of both.
The interment takes place at Saffron Hill Cemetery at 10.20am tomorrow. The family say all are welcome to come and pay their respects.