Ketamine STOLE OUR CHILDREN

Increasing numbers of young people are using the drug, with devastating consequences

- MATT BARBOUR, LOUISE BATY

It is a club no parent wishes to join, but these grieving mums have found solace in one another as they navigate their devastating loss. Tragically, they both lost their precious children to ketamine, a class B drug, costing as little as £2 a bag.

The drug - also known as Ket, K and Special K - can lead to addiction within days and leave users doubly incontinent, with their minds destroyed. Reports show that use of the drug in young people aged 16-24 has increased by 231% since 2013.

Now, Tracy Marelli, whose daughter Sophie, 20, died in September 2024, after a two-year ketamine addiction battle, and Wendy Teasdill, whose daughter Eleanor died aged 18 in August 2013, after taking ketamine at a festival, have joined forces. By supporting one another and sharing their children's tragic stories, they hope to warn other parents and save lives.

'SOPHIE KNEW IT WOULD KILL HER'

Tracy Marelli, 47, lives in Lincoln.

When I think of my daughter Sophie, I picture her wide smile and limitless energy. High-achieving and wanting to help others, she dreamed of becoming a child psychologist and, in September 2022, aged 18, she embarked on a psychology degree at Bishop Lincoln University.

That was before my beautiful daughter was stolen from me, piece by piece, in two short years, in a nightmare which could befall any normal family, even yours.

Still living at home during her university course, in October 2022, I noticed bruises on Sophie's legs which the GP put down to iron deficiency. But I noticed that if I called Sophie while she was out with friends, she was slurring her words and the following month, when I found her staring blankly in her bedroom, I knew she'd taken something.

Sophie denied it, but weeks later, my suspicions were confirmed when I found tiny white crystals on her bedside table, and she admitted to snorting ketamine.