Family rues tragic Nancy's death

When Yvonne Berry's 16-year-old daughter Nancy developed blood clots on her lungs in 1995, doctors could not understand why the previously fit teenager had become so ill.

Nancy, a child model, had graduated from stage school and wanted to be a dancer. But after she complained of tightness in her chest during a night out, her condition worsened rapidly. Mrs Berry remains convinced that Nancy died because of a reaction to Femodene, a third-generation-contraceptive pill she had been using for only one month.

Mrs Berry, 53, from Bexley, Kent, said: "Why else would a healthy 16-year-old suffer a pulmonary embolism?

"When she was taken to hospital they sent her home, telling her she was having a panic attack. She went back to the hospital coughing up blood and the doctors diagnosed a chest infection.

"Within a few hours she had a heart attack and, though they managed to bring her round, it happened again the next morning and she died."