Mum reveals tragic last words her daughter, 17, told her before teen collapsed and died following allergic reaction
A mother has revealed the tragic last words her 17-year-old daughter told her before she died from an allergic reaction.
Kerrie Stokes was devastated after discovering “gorgeous” Hollie collapsed in a friend’s garden.
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She recalled Hollie kissing her little siblings and shouting “bye guys” before leaving her home in Birmingham to go to her part-time job at a local restaurant.
Tragically, this was the last time the loving mother saw her daughter alive.
Investigators say Hollie collapsed at a friend’s house later that day after eating a rice cake at the restaurant.
The snack contained walnuts, which triggered the teenager’s severe nut allergy.
Police initially arrested a woman on suspicion of manslaughter, but have now closed the case.
However, Kerrie has appealed and vowed to fight “with all her might” to reopen the investigation.
She told Birmingham Live: “She died a terrible and undignified death without making it to hospital.”
“She died in her friend’s garden, it was that bad.
“As a family, we need answers and the truth about how this happened.”
“We feel this needs to be fully investigated. We feel like we’ve been let down.”
The distraught mother called on police to take another look at a “key piece of evidence”, citing CCTV footage reportedly in the possession of West Midlands Police.
According to a police letter seen by local reporters, the video appears to show Hollie asking the restaurant manager if the rice cake contained nuts, to which the woman apparently replied that it did not.
For her part, the manager, who has since changed jobs, claimed that Hollie asked if there was meat in it as she was a vegetarian and that she told the teenager it wasn’t.
Kerrie added: “When she got the job here we said, ‘Don’t be stupid, you can’t work there, they work with nuts, shellfish etc’.”
“She said, ‘[The manager] I know I have allergies, don’t worry about it. I only accept telephone orders.
“We kept her safe for the entire 15 years we knew she had allergies, and within three months of working there it had taken her life.”
Hollie’s cause of death was tentatively determined to be anaphylaxis; a full investigation is scheduled to begin in January.
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “The investigation is subject to the victim’s right to review, so it would not be appropriate for us to comment until the matter has been concluded. However, we will do so in due course.”
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