A YOUNG backpacker and fitness fanatic who collapsed and died in an Australian gym has saved three lives after her organs were donated.
Karen Stocks, 30, suffered a brain haemorrhage on Sunday at the gym she had joined less than a week before in Brisbane.
Her mother Anne, who had to give permission to switch off her life-support from the other side of the world, also had to make
the tough decision to donate her daughter's heart, liver and kidneys to be used in transplants.
Karen's friends have told how she collapsed and died with "no warning" while working out in the gym.
The former care worker, who loved boxing, running and surfing, had been travelling round the country for six months.
She was described as a "very caring and outgoing" woman, who lived life "to the max" and had friends all over the world.
Her devastated mother is being comforted by relatives and friends at her Ferniehill home. Karen had grown up in the area, and worked for several years at an Edinburgh nursing home. She left her job to travel to Australia on a year-long working holiday last November.
Denise McFadden, a close friend, said they had been shocked by the news. She said: "Obviously we're all devastated. It was so unexpected. Karen was very close to her family, and had lots of good friends. She was very outgoing and made friends wherever she went. She lived life to the max and crammed as much in as she could.
"She was very caring and she loved her job. She put her heart and soul into it. She had just got a job working in a cancer ward in Australia.
"She enjoyed travelling and had been looking forward to this for a long time. She travelled to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.
"I think she just loved the outdoors lifestyle. She was very, very fit. She had just joined the gym in Brisbane last Monday.
"There was no warning at all. She had a brain haemorrhage. By the time she got to hospital there was no brain activity at all. Her flatmate said she had been very happy that morning."
McFadden said the family were arranging for Karen's body to be flown home to Edinburgh for her funeral.
A few weeks earlier, Karen had written on her Bebo website that she was having the "best time ever", although she missed friends in Scotland. She had taken several jobs on her travels, including in a surf shop and as a nanny.
Karen's coach at the Leith Victoria Boxing Club, where she began training last year, said:
"She was always into fitness, and she came here to do training. She was a nice girl, and worked as a carer. She certainly saved up for a long time to go on this holiday, and she'd been talking about it for months.
"We got a postcard from her only a few weeks ago, and it's a real shock to hear she has died. Her best friend is a boxer here and he is currently training in Thailand, but I know he will take this very hard."
The full article contains 536 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
