'My baby screamed in agony every time she used loo - then her body just cut out'

A young woman, described as "funny" and "selfless", tragically lost her life due to a secret ketamine addiction, which spiralled following the devastating loss of her unborn child.

Beth Ashton, 25, had managed to keep her drug problem hidden from her loved ones until it was too late. In a heart-wrenching turn of events, Beth's father found her lifeless at home on the morning of November 9 2024. Her distraught mum, Natalie Ashton, said: "Her little body just gave out."

Beth, hailing from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, fell into the clutches of ketamine after experiencing a traumatic stillbirth in 2019. Natalie shared: "She suffered from preeclampsia. When we went to the hospital, her son had already passed, already gone, and she had to give birth to him.

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"Because it was Easter there was nowhere for him to go, so we had him for five days in the cold cot. He deteriorated very quickly and that was very, very traumatic for everyone, especially for Beth."

Natalie expressed her admiration when her daughter seemed to bounce back remarkably fast around six to eight months after the death of her son, whom she named Roman. Unbeknownst to her, Beth's apparent uplifted spirits were a sign of something far more ominous, reports the Liverpool Echo.

She explained: "Ketamine makes you feel good, it stops anxiety, it stops depression. But it's killing your insides. You can be asymptomatic for a long time without realising. I thought she was coping brilliantly. I was in awe of how well she was dealing with such traumatic events. But looking back, that would make sense if she was using."

Initially, the warning signs of Beth's ketamine dependency were easily overlooked, as she concealed her dramatic weight loss beneath loose-fitting clothing. However, she experienced her first pain episode in 2020 - and from that point, her condition rapidly declined.

She was displaying symptoms of a rarely recognised condition known as "ketamine bladder syndrome", an excruciating condition triggered by substantial, repeated ketamine doses.

Natalie explained: "Her bladder shrunk to the point it could only hold 30ml, the size of a shot glass. She had started passing jelly tissue in her urine, which was the lining of the bladder.

"Because Beth was an adult, sometimes a few months would go by without us seeing each other. When I saw her she looked incredibly thin, with bones poking out. It was a shock for me and I thought she might have an eating disorder," Natalie said.

The root of Beth's health problems was only uncovered in September last year, when she was admitted to Southport Hospital. Natalie said: "When I went to visit her, she looked like she'd just come out of a concentration camp. There was next to nothing on her. I just burst into tears."

Beth, a pharmacy worker, was discharged from Southport Hospital three days later and referred to the Inspire Drug and Alcohol Service. She chose to temporarily move back in with her mum as she planned to overcome her addiction.

But Natalie said: "She was still using because that was the only thing that could take away the severe pain, and she was already so far gone by this point. She was journaling her plans to get clean. But the help just didn't come in time.

"The pain was excruciating. She had to wee every 15 minutes and every 15 minutes she was in severe agony, crippled, screaming." Tragically, Beth died on November 9 last year, just two months after leaving hospital.

Natalie said: "Her dad went to check on her in the morning and she was cold. He knew as soon as he saw her. My baby was in agony and her little body just gave out. The damage that had been done was too much.

"She weighed less that my little boy at this point. She was under five stone. It literally sucked the life out of her. She was deteriorating every time I saw her, until there was nothing left."

After her daughter's tragic death, the mum-of-three established the West Lancs Ketamine Awareness and Support Facebook page for families battling ketamine addiction. She explained: "I feel like I need to turn this pain into something positive, and if I can help just one family, just one person, Beth's death isn't in vain.

"This time last year I knew nothing about this drug, but since her passing I'm seeing so many more stories similar to Beth's. Unknown to me, there's been people in Skelmersdale who are going through it with their kids, who are 15 and 16, and it set a fire in my belly because kids that young don't know the risks. Beth was 25 and she didn't know the risks.

"Beth was my best friend. She was so funny, she was so selfless, she was always there for others, always had a sensible head and gave the best advice.

"She was on top of the world, all these plans, all these goals. She wanted to make a fresh start in Australia. Everything just happened so fast. That's something a lot of parents won't be prepared for - how quickly your child can deteriorate."