{"id":429020,"date":"2026-02-16T17:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429020\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T17:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:57:15","slug":"the-life-saving-legacy-of-bulwell-girl-who-was-just-11-when-tragedy-struck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429020\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘life-saving’ legacy of Bulwell girl who was just 11 when tragedy struck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucia Donkin suffered acute heart failure caused by flu\"Lucia<\/p>\n

Lucia Donkin, of Bulwell, died aged just 11 in 2016<\/p>\n

Almost a decade has passed since the sudden death of 11-year-old Lucia Donkin<\/a>, who suffered acute heart failure caused by influenza.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t make it any easier for her mum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about her all the time, every day. It\u2019s not something I can explain to anybody else, and it\u2019s not something you ever get over,” said Clare Collier, from Bulwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not getting any easier, but the kids keep me going.”<\/p>\n

Lucia had fallen ill with what had seemed like a common illness, taking time off school with her best friend, who was also suffering from flu-like symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither one was worse than the other; it was just a cough, cold and headaches,” recalled Clare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came to Friday, and her friend got better, and Lucia took a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was being sick, so we kept an eye on her. On Saturday morning, she came downstairs and told us she didn\u2019t sleep at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer hands and feet were turning purple and felt cold to touch, so we put her in the bath and called 111.”<\/p>\n

\"Clare<\/p>\n

Clare Collier with daughters Lucia, Amelia and Amber(Image: Clare Collier)<\/p>\n

Because there was no established emergency pathway for purple feet and hands, Clare had to wait 4 hours before a nurse practitioner called her back.<\/p>\n

This lack of a pathway was later changed by 111 in response to Lucia’s case, her mum said.<\/p>\n

“They got changed for the better,” said Clare, who hopes her daughter’s legacy can help save the lives of others.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully that will save someone\u2019s life because that\u2019s a necessary thing to recognise. It\u2019s poor circulation and the heart wasn\u2019t circulating blood properly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping it benefits some people. I didn\u2019t realise how many people die of flu every year. Yes, it\u2019s a lot of elderly people, but it\u2019s also a lot of children.”<\/p>\n

When Lucia was eventually taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre<\/a>, scans showed her heart function was rapidly deteriorating, and while waiting for further treatment, she had a sudden cardiac arrest in her hospital bed.<\/p>\n

She died the day before Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n

Lucia had suffered problems with her health at 8 years old, being admitted to hospital with flu before a scan revealed it had caused a rare build-up of fluid around her heart and lungs.<\/p>\n

\"Lucia<\/p>\n

Lucia was just 11 when she died in 2016(Image: Clare Collier)<\/p>\n

Despite it being “touch or go” as to whether she’d survive, she recovered, and scans found no further problems with her heart.<\/p>\n

Since her daughter’s death, Clare has raised around \u00a310,000 for charities such as the British Heart Foundation by completing charity bike rides, swims, and a head shave.<\/p>\n

The latest is a charity football match, which is open for anyone to attend and will take place at Hucknall<\/a> Town FC on Sunday, March 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucia Donkin suffered acute heart failure caused by flu Lucia Donkin, of Bulwell, died aged just 11 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85519,2864,59,102,104,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-429020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-bulwell","tag-family","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}