19-year-old Rosa Nicolson drowned after suffering an epileptic fit while swimming.
She was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of five, and was 19 when she went for a swim and suffered a fatal seizure in the water.
Rosa had been on medication for her epilepsy since she was five but even with it, she would still have seizures.
On the afternoon of her death, she had been at home in Sissinghurst, Kent, on her summer holidays from Oxford Brooks University, where she was studying hospitality management.
Getting up late, she had left a dirty bowl of cereal on the kitchen surface, scolded her mum for being “too stressy” about the washing up, and put her bikini on for a quick swim.
Seconds later, her dad Andrew, who was at the time a journalist for the Sunday Times, went to check on her.
He found Rosa floating in the water and could not revive her.
“Even though there was always a chance that one day Rosa’s epilepsy would take her life, it was still a terrible shock,” Vanessa said.
“She was a very bright, funny, vibrant girl who embraced life. It was horrible and affected everyone who knew her.
“From a young age, we were responsible for monitoring her medication, but as she got older, it became more difficult.
“She was growing up, like all teenagers do, and it became harder to keep an eye on her.”
Source Mirror
