Tanning enthusiast died of heart attack not banned drug says jury

A young woman who collapsed and died at a sunbed shop after giving herself injections of a banned drug in order to go brown died of heart failure not linked to use of the jabs, an inquest jury ruled.

Fair-skinned Jenna Wilson-Vickers, 26, had been using Melanotan 2 for weeks before being found unconscious in a cubicle at the Tantastic sunbed shop in her home town of Bolton, Lancashire, last September.

Miss Wilson-Vickers had also been using sunbeds to excess, up to three or four times a week, the hearing at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard yesterday, with the day she died being her third 12-minute session over three successive days.

She had bought the substance online, despite it being a banned product which should not be sold or supplied under UK law, and was injecting it into her stomach, taking a jab the night before she died on September 3 last year.

Weeks before, she had tweeted: “Getting a lovely tan now ... And I’ve had no side effects :) Very happy Bunny.”

A pathologist told the inquest that while medical research into Melanotan was limited, in his opinion, it had nothing to do with her death, which was consistent with a heart attack.

Her mother, Shirley Mather, had told the 11-strong jury her daughter was a bright and bubbly person and generally happy but had struggled with her weight, weighing around 25 stones at the time of her death.

Pathologist Dr Patrick Waugh said Miss Wilson-Vickers was obese, with a body mass index of 58, while the normal range was between 21 and 25. Most of her organs were enlarged, especially her heart, and she was susceptible to sudden death. “The possibility of adverse reaction to Melanotan can’t be excluded,” he said, “but there is no evidence to suggest it does. I can’t link it to the medical cause of death.”

The jury heard toxicology tests cannot detect Melanotan 2 in the body, which produces melatonin naturally. And there has not been enough scientific research to say whether or not it is a danger to human health.

In a report, toxicologist Julie Evans, said the effects on the body was “beyond the scope” of current testing so it was impossible to say what effect it had on Miss Wilson-Vickers.

Det Con Joanne Lally, of Greater Manchester Police, said a vial of Melanotan 2 found in Miss Wilson-Vickers’ bedroom was purchased by her from a website called Totally Tanning. The person running the site was given a caution and the site closed down.