The mother of a young woman who died suddenly after developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on a plane says she’s been left devastated after flowers were allegedly stolen from her memorial bench.
Ruth Christoffersen’s daughter Emma was on a three-week trip of a lifetime in Australia to go white-water rafting and see the Sydney Harbour Bridge in September 2000.
But during the 12,000-mile flight home Emma, aged 28, developed DVT which was believed to have been caused by sitting down for an extended period. You can read more about Emma's story here.
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She collapsed after arriving at Heathrow airport on September 30, 2000, and was pronounced dead.
In 2010 Ruth, now aged 75, and her late husband John who died on September 20, 2017, had a memorial bench made just two doors down from their home in Underwood, Newport.
“It’s been a way of remembering Emma, I go there most days and there has never been a day where there aren’t flowers on that bench,” Ruth told WalesOnline.
“That bench has always been tidy and has never been touched. I understand there are more awful things happening in this world, but this has been very personal and upsetting for me.”
Describing the moment she realised the flowers had been removed from the bench, Ruth said: “I was walking back home and chatting to one of the neighbours and when I saw it I just couldn’t believe it.
“The community here has been brilliant, because Emma touched so many lives. They’ve been out looking for the flowers to see if they have been dumped.
“It is very sad if people are that desperate for flowers that they’d do something like this.”
Ruth has spent the last 21 years campaigning to raise awareness of DVT, which she admits she didn’t know about before Emma’s passing.
Her campaign went global after it was taken to the High Court. Although their campaign was thrown out in 2005, Ruth says she is proud of the work they’ve done in raising awareness of the condition.
“I hope and pray that if we can help save one or two lives, it’s been worth it,” she said. “I know we have saved lives. One guy was travelling from America and stopped at Heathrow to Amsterdam and on the plane he was reading Emma’s story. He went to hospital the next day and he was told that if he hadn’t read that story, he wouldn’t be here today.
“For some people it’s only three letters, but the knowledge of those three letters can save a life.
“Although it’s been 21 years it all seems to have gone so fast.”
