Young woman died of cardiac arrest after falling from bucking bronco
A young woman died of a cardiac arrest after falling off a mechanical bucking bronco on a night out at a rodeo-themed bar.
The heartbroken family of Jessica Lally, 26, have revealed her tragic story in a fundraising campaign for the installation of more defibrillators, which could have saved her life.
Ms Lally's mother Joan said her daughter and her friends had been at the Bronco's Rodeo bar in Sheffield last October when they decided to try the mechanical bull.
The ride appears still to be operating and was promoted on the bar's Facebook page as a student night attraction over Christmas with the comment "It's a Bucking Good Time".
Mrs Lally said: "She was in the Bronco Bar and she went on the ride and fell off and had a cardiac arrest.
"She was just on a night out. She'd not had a lot to drink. They'd been for a meal actually and they called in there afterwards. I don't know why she decided to go on it. She was just having fun I suppose.
"She'd just gone out for a night out and then we had police at the door at midnight.
"We're still going through it now. Sometimes we still fall into pieces. It’s been heartbreaking."
'She had her whole life ahead of her'
Ms Lally, who worked as a manager for jewellery company Pandora, had been planning to get married.
Her mother said: "She had her whole life ahead of her. She was such a beautiful girl, so kind and funny. She'd got her whole life planned. They were going to get married.
"She always wrote these fantastic Christmas lists, but that year she'd just put: a house, a ring and a baby."
The tragedy rocked the family's community of Kimberworth in Rotherham.
More than 500 mourners turned up for the funeral and could not all fit in the church.
She said: "People are still talking about it now, about how many people were walking to church - I think there were about 500 people, we couldn't get them all into the church.
"Afterwards, at the local pub, the queue was right up the road to get served for food and drink."
Ms Lally's family are now focused on raising money for life-saving defibrillator equipment in her memory, as they believe this device could have saved her life.
Mrs Lally said: "I went down to Rotherham United and the ambulance service were showing me how to use the defibrillator and, knowing that they were trying to do that with Jessica, it caught my imagination.
"I thought 'what a brilliant idea', because we haven't really got any locally. It's important, it's a matter of life and death sometimes, it can save somebody's life."
The family have raised over £10,000 so far and Jessica's cousin, Michael Noone, 47, plans to run 26 half-marathons in 12 weeks - so one half marathon for every year of Jessica's life.
The bar has been contacted for comment.
