A ‘kind and funny’ young woman who was planning to get married died on a night out after having a go on a bucking bronco ride.
Jessica Lally was just 26 when she went into cardiac arrest last October.
Her mum Joan said Jessica and her friends had been at the Bronco’s Rodeo bar in West Street, Sheffield, when tragedy struck.
The American themed bar has a mechanical bull that customers can ride and Jessica decided to give it a go.
Joan said: ‘She went on the ride and fell off and had a cardiac arrest.
‘She was just on a night out – she’d not had a lot to drink, they’d been for a meal actually and they called in there afterwards.
‘I don’t know why she decided to go on it, but was just having fun I suppose.’
Recalling the horrific moment she learned of her daughter’s death, Joan said: ‘She’d just gone out for a night out and then we had police at the door at midnight.
‘We’re still going through it now. Sometimes we still fall into pieces; it’s been heartbreaking.’
Jessica, who worked as a manager for jewellery company Pandora, had been planning to get married to her partner and her mum said that she had ‘her whole life ahead of her’.
She said: ‘She was such a beautiful girl, so kind and funny and she’d got her whole life planned; they were going to get married.
‘She always wrote these fantastic Christmas lists, but that year she’d just put: a house, a ring and a baby.’
Jessica’s sudden death rocked the community of Kimberworth in Rotherham, where she and her family are from.
Joan said on the day of her daughter’s funeral there were around 500 people in attendance and they could not all fit into the church.
She said: ‘Afterwards, at the local pub, the queue was right up the road to get served for food and drink.’
Jessica’s family are now raising money for lifesaving defibrillator equipment in her memory, as this device might have saved Jessica’s life had one been used sooner.
They have raised over £10,000 so far and Jessica’s cousin, Michael Noone, 47, has also taken on his own fundraising challenge in her memory.
Michael’s plan is to run 26 half-marathons in 12 weeks – one half marathon for every year of Jessica’s life.
Firefighter Michael knows first-hand how important it is to have defibrillators on hand so that if someone goes into cardiac arrest they stand a better chance of surviving.
He said: ‘They eventually did get a defib [to help Jessica] but there wasn’t one in the premises.
‘I do believe there was a nurse in the bar she was in, so immediately she started to help her and they did eventually get a defib but, unfortunately, she passed away that night. So it’s been awful really, it was just sudden.’
Michael said that they are an ‘essential piece of kit’ and both he and the rest of Jessica’s family hope that their fundraising efforts can mean that there are more installed in their local area.
If you would like to donate to Michael’s fundraiser, you can do so here.
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