Former Geordie Shore television personality Holly Hagan, 34, has issued a warning to people attending festivals this weekend, urging them to look after their friends following the death of her sister from an accidental drug overdose.
Darci Rose Gibson died at the age of 19 after a night out in Manchester last October. She suffered multi-organ failure caused by an accidental overdose of crystal MDMA, a synthetic psychoactive drug commonly known as ecstasy.
Hagan posted her warning on Instagram on Saturday, as a number of major music and arts events took place around the United Kingdom, including the Reading and Leeds Festival, The Big Feastival and Electric Picnic.
"I haven't stopped thinking about the fact that someone might not make it back from the festivals," Hagan wrote.
MDMA deaths at British festivals
"When I see people's videos walking into the camp grounds so happy for the weekend's of their lives," she continued, "I just think I hope to God you all make it home."
Hagan noted that on average, five people a year die during UK festivals, with the vast majority of those deaths related to MDMA. The drug acts as a stimulant and a hallucinogen, and can cause a dangerous increase in body temperature that leads to organ failure.
"Nobody thinks it'll happen to them until it does," she said.
"I know my sister's death won't be the last of this nature and it's such a gut wrenching thought that other families will have to go through what we have. Please be careful. Look after your friends and don't show off. It's not worth the risk."
Hagan stressed that Gibson was "not reckless," but rather a young girl who made a "silly mistake." She urged others to think twice before taking recreational drugs.
Tribute to hospital staff
Geordie Shore, the MTV reality television series Hagan starred in, first broadcast in 2011. Following her sister's death last year, she expressed devastation and paid tribute to the paramedics and staff at the MRI, the Manchester Royal Infirmary, "for giving my sister the absolute best chance."
"It is with immeasurable grief and sadness that our baby girl, my baby sister Darci Rose passed away peacefully holding my hand surrounded by family and her best friends," Hagan wrote at the time.
"She was never in any pain. The last four days have been something I hope no family ever has to go through. We are traumatised in every sense of the word."
Hagan thanked all the medics involved in Gibson's care, explaining that their efforts allowed the family to hold her hand, stroke her hair and feel her heart beating for the final time.
"We will forever be grateful for the way you have looked after her and us throughout this unimaginable process," she added. "Darci is so beautiful and she genuinely didn't even realise it."
Saving a stranger through organ donation
In a later interview with Paul C Brunson on his podcast We Need To Talk, Hagan revealed that Gibson saved the life of a stranger by donating her heart.
Organ donation is the process of surgically removing an organ or tissue from one person and placing it into another person, often a life saving procedure for those with organ failure.
"I'll be really honest. It was a selfish decision," Hagan told Brunson. "We wanted her life to mean something. We wanted to be able to say that she'd saved a life, like that was for us."
"That was to give us peace," she continued. "A lot of people like, 'oh, you're so selfless and brave'. We weren't, we wanted her to have achieved this. And for us to feel better because of it."
Hagan said the family found out by letter three weeks later confirming that Gibson had saved the life of a woman.
A poignant tattoo
"And it was just such an honor to have been able to be a part of that," Hagan said.
"As awful as the situation was, I'm so proud of her and she's achieved more in her short 19 years than many others will achieve. And I'm so happy that, you know, the day that that woman got that call will have been the happiest day of her life."
"And it was the worst day of ours. But something good came of it. And someone's children didn't have to lose their parent. Because of Darci."
During the podcast, Hagan also revealed what she called the "weirdest thing" about the organ donation.
"Darci had a tattoo under her ribs here, so on her heart, and it said, 'live where your heart finds life,'" she explained.
"And that's such a strange tattoo for a 19 year old to get. Live where your heart finds life. And that was the only organ that she was able to donate. And now, hopefully, she is living where her heart has found life. Honestly, there's so many chills things I could tell you that have happened since like, her passing."
