Lily King, from Buckinghamshire, collapsed in her mum Aicha’s arms during a family holiday in Morocco, following an allergic reaction from food served at a restaurant
A teenager told her mother: “You know Mum, I love you. I’m sorry. Goodbye” before she collapsed in her arms following an allergic reaction on holiday.
Lily King died four days later from a cardio-respiratory arrest caused by anaphylaxis and triggered by food. She had eaten a tiny piece of carrot at a restaurant in Morocco – where the family had been on holiday to celebrate the teen completing her first year of her economic degree – but instantly experienced allergy symptoms.
Within minutes, Lily, 18, was gasping for air and losing consciousness despite taking an antihistamine tablet and using her EpiPen. Her mum, Aicha, recalls: “She said, ‘You know Mum, I love you. I’m sorry. Goodbye.’ And she collapsed in my arms.” The tragedy comes after a man recently died after his wife ran him over in a car park in a “tragic accident”.
Since Lily’s inquest in June, her parents Aicha, 57, and 75-year-old Michael have used the media to urge others to be extra cautious eating out while on holiday. They had chosen a restaurant they had been to before – and that Lily loved – during a previous trip to Rabat, Morocco but her dish was served with vegetables and a sauce Aicha, a fluent Arabic speaker, hadn’t requested.
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It was a small bite of one of these rogue vegetables – a carrot – that led to Lily’s swift cardio-respiratory arrest. Speaking this week, Aicha, a carer for the Epilepsy Society, said: “Neither the waiter nor any of the doctors spoke English. Without Arabic, it would have been impossible to make myself understood. It is my mother tongue and yet I still couldn’t get the care Lily needed… My daughter was my best friend, my everything… Without her, our life is nothing.
“I was so, so careful with everything Lily ate. I cooked everything at my mum’s house and brought it to the hotel so we could eat together. We never ate hotel food. The only thing I ordered was tea.”
Lily, who was from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, was diagnosed with severe allergies to fish and seafood, nuts, sesame, milk and eggs when she was two-and-a-half. Her asthma inhaler helped open up her airways if she ate one of the foods she was allergic to during her childhood.
The only time the student had a severe reaction that warranted emergency hospital care was in January 2024, five months before the Morocco trip, when she bought a burger at a music festival in Exeter, Devon, and shortly afterwards suffered anaphylaxis – the most extreme allergic reaction.
Reflecting on this, Michael, who is a set decorator in the movie industry, told Mail Online: “Before then, we didn’t think her allergies were life-threatening. This one could have killed her. It changed everything.
“We want to spread a warning to anyone travelling to other countries where the laws are different to those in the UK – don’t trust anybody,’ adds Michael. We had 18 beautiful years with Lily. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would lose her like this.”
