Alexandra Wilshaw, a 21-year-old cheerleader at Durham University in Durham, England, was found dead in her university dorm in March 2018. Now, her family is using their personal tragedy to raise awareness for causes close to their heart to keep the memory of their daughter alive.
Wilshaw was found hanged in her room and her family is now raising money for mental health and suicide awareness.
“We never knew there was anything wrong. She used to be perfectly fine when we spoke to her over Facetime — I would ask her if anything was wrong and she would tell me that she was OK — she’d seem happy,” her mother Carole Fowkes said, via the New York Post.
“You just wouldn’t have known, she kept it all to herself. There were no signs at all.”
Carole has set up a GoFundMe account in the memory of their only daughter.
“18 months ago I lost my only child Alexandra. Alexandra was studying Maths at Durham University and was in her final year at Durham Castle University when the police came knocking on my door that cold March morning. The events that followed have been branded in my mind and soul forever, with no reason or answers her actions affected so many people and as a mother you feel you have failed her, and this has changed me as a person,” her mother wrote.
“Alexandra died by suicide, in schools and universities this is becoming a regular occurrence with all the pressures that come with studying, social media as well as everyday life. Alexandra was a kind, caring, considerate & beautiful person always putting others first, even in death many of her organs were donated into helping improve other lives. I cannot change events for my daughter, but I can help support and understand those other students who feel the same and give Alexandra’s name a sense in the circles of her short life that she loved so very much.”
Alexandra’s mother received the horrifying news shortly after 4:00 a.m. on that tragic day after she was found unresponsive in her room.
After being rushed to the Intensive Care Unite, Alexandra was declared brain dead before passing away on March 18.
