A seemingly fit and healthy young woman from Brighton has died after reportedly drinking alcohol on an empty stomach.

27-year-old Alice Burton Bradford, described by friends and family as a ‘health freak’, wasn’t a heavy drinker. Rather, she was suffering from a rare metabolic complication known as alcoholic ketoacidosis, which can be triggered if one hasn’t eaten enough before consuming alcohol.

While it’s unclear exactly how much Alice had to drink prior to her death, the reaction was so sudden that she didn’t even make it to hospital, and sadly died in her garden.

Alice passed away last month, and an inquest is underway. Aaron Mulvay, a friend of Alice for the past eight years, told Metro ‘it was absolutely a horrible shock… no-one expected it at all’.

The 30-year-old added:

I had never even heard of alcoholic ketoacidosis until she died. We’re not sure how much she had been drinking that weekend, but she was not an alcoholic. She had not eaten enough and it had triggered an acid in her stomach.

It was just so sudden – she didn’t even have to go to hospital, but had gone out into her garden and passed away there. It’s so tragic as she was such a young age.

According to Aaron, Alice ‘loved going out but she was also such a health freak – she was a member of running clubs and really enjoyed cycling’. Three weeks prior to her death, she’d ‘cycled over to say hello at a distance’, and had been walking her dog along the beach and running every day throughout the course of lockdown.

Unfortunately, like many of Alice’s friends, Aaron wasn’t able to attend her funeral, ‘so we want to put up a memorial to say our own goodbyes’. While remaining in close contact with her family in Cornwall, he’s raised £1,845 in a crowfunding campaign.

Aaron explained: 

We’d like to have it put on the cliffs where Alice used to walk her dog, or in a nice park as she loved wildlife. We just want to raise as much as possible for a bench memorial and whatever is left over we will donate to a charity… Alice had so many friends and she will be dearly missed.’

Aaron added that he thinks ‘there needs to be more information out there about the dangers of drinking when you have not eaten properly’. According to Healthline, there are a number of symptoms for alcoholic ketoacidosis, including: abdominal pain, fatigue, irregular breathing, nausea and dizziness.

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