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https://twitter.com/vancemurphy/status/1658288794226008066
https://gofund.me/09a43dc4
Rhea Hourigan
Dawn Buchanan is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Joanne Hourigan.
It is with a heavy heart I am setting up this fundraiser for a beautiful young lady Rhea Hourigan who was tragically taken from this world on Saturday 29th April leaving her doting parents Jo and Dom, brother Joel and grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends totally and utterly devastated. Rhea was in her 1st year at Durham University and was thriving, she had returned to her hometown in Birmingham for the Easter holidays and planned before going back to Uni to visit her Aunty who lived in Paris for a few days, she had been so looking forward to the trip. After arriving in Paris they hired electric bikes and had the most wonderful day exploring and taking in all the sights of the City. Then tragedy struck later that evening when she took a shower and collapsed. Her Aunty called the paramedics but she just couldn’t be saved and passed away at 00.45am on 29th May, she died of a cardiac arrest at just 19 years old. The cause of cardiac arrest is unknown.
Her mom Jo wrote on Facebook "She had so many plans, dreams and aspirations she was our bright shining star. she hadn’t even finished her first year of uni which she absolutely loved up in Durham and had made so many good friends. Our only comfort is that she was so happy and had had such a brilliant day seeing the sights of Paris, she wouldn’t have known what had happened and didn’t suffer."
The family are back now from Paris but Rhea is still there as there will be an autopsy next week then hopefully she will be able to come home a few days after that. Their friends and family wanted to reach out and help as much as they can to ease the financial burden a little with any costs they will be incurring during this devasting time and the coming weeks and months.
I totally understand times are tough for everyone at the moment but anything at all you may be able to spare to help this very special family in their time of need would be so much appreciated.
I want to update you on where we are with bringing Rhea home to the UK. Her dad Dom flew to Paris last night, firstly to see Rhea as we have not been able to see her until the autopsy was complete, then to collect the autopsy report from the French court and get this translated, as they will only give this to immediate family, (we do hope this will give us some answers). Unfortunately the French don’t publish a cause of death on the death certificate, so we need the coroners report in English to satisfy the UK coroner or there will be another autopsy done here in the UK.
Rhea should arrive in the UK Thursday and hopefully arrive in Solihull Friday. We think it will be the middle of next week before we know if we can begin to plan the funeral.
