Tragedy as diabetic attack kills nurse, 23, at home

A YOUNG nurse has died suddenly after suffering a diabetic attack in her Edinburgh home.

Shelley Cairns was rushed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Thursday morning but doctors were unable to save her.

The 23-year-old had been working on the hospital's acute medical ward but was on annual leave when she fell ill.

She had wanted to become a diabetic specialist nurse so she could treat other people with the condition.

Her death, just two years into her career, has shocked colleagues at the ERI.

Libby Campbell, associate director of nursing at NHS Lothian, said: "We have all been deeply saddened by the news of Shelley Cairns' death, especially as it was at such a young age.

"She was a popular and respected member of staff and will be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends.

"Our thoughts are with her loved ones at this very difficult time." Shelley came from Inverness-shire and attended Millburn Academy, where her mother Yvonne still teaches.

The family have been left too upset by her sudden death to comment.

She came to Edinburgh to study nursing at Queen Margaret University. After graduating sheworked for a nursing agency before moving to the ERI.

Last year she was part of a group who took 17 under-privileged children from her former school to see the Black Sea, in Romania, organised by the charity Blythswood Care.

She had planned to be part of a second trip going out to Romania at the end of June.

Mick McGahey, Unison branch secretary for NHS Lothian's University Hospitals Division, said her colleagues would be devastated. "It's very traumatic, she was only 23-years-old," he said. "As I understand it, it was a problem with diabetes.

"Her family must be absolutely distraught. My heart goes out to them. I'm told she passed away at home. It does not surprise me that she wanted to be a diabetic specialist nurse, if she was a sufferer afflicted by that.

"It often happens that people want to specialise in something that has affected them. It is tragic. She had only just started her career as a nurse."

A Lothian and Borders Police spokeswoman said the force had been made aware of the death and that it was not being treated as suspicious. On her MySpace website, Shelley described her hobbies as "pubbing, clubbing, parties and drunken dancing. Oh and how can I forget – shopping!"

She lists No Angels, the TV comedy drama about the lives of a group of young nurses, as one of her favourite shows and revealed it was "sometimes too true to real life".




• www.www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk