The daughter of billionaire insurance tycoon David Howden was dramatically airlifted out of Colombia after suffering a serious medical emergency while travelling in South America.
Jemima Howden, 21, a rising British eventing star who is hoping to compete in the 2028 Olympics, was struck down with suspected sepsis during her trip towards the end of last month.
She was airlifted out of the country to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital where she stayed for nearly a week as doctors worked urgently to stabilise her.
Her mother, Fiona ‘Fifi’ Howden, 57, called the ordeal ‘the scariest week’ and praised the international teams who helped bring her daughter back to health.
She added in a post online that the experience was ‘the darkest of terror’, and they made it through thanks to a ‘global network of powerful emergency powers’.
A spokesperson for the Howden family said: ‘On a recent holiday to Colombia with friends, Jemima Howden was taken ill with suspected sepsis.
‘She received immediate medical attention in Colombia and was then evacuated back home to the UK where she has made a quick recovery.
‘The Howden family is extremely grateful for the support of the medical professionals involved at all stages of Jemima’s care.’
Ms Howden shared an image of herself on Instagram strapped into a stretcher while being airlifted, connected to heart monitors and IV lines as clinicians worked around her during the flight.
She added on Monday: ‘Very happy to be back home after a scary week in hospital after getting sick whilst being away… Thank you to my INSANE family & friends – you are all legends.’
In a moment of levity captured inside her hospital room, Ms Howden posted a picture of her mother smiling from a chair with the caption: ‘In the bottom of the pits of hell there’s always humour… especially the best Mum in the world.’
Ms Howden’s father, 62, is one of Britain’s most influential business figures – a billionaire entrepreneur who built Howden Group from a three-man start-up in 1994 into a £3 billion-revenue global insurance powerhouse operating in 55 countries.
Earlier this year he was awarded a CBE for services to the insurance industry.
Mr Howden also has a passion for horse racing and his horse Running Lion won Group Two Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot last year.
‘Oh, the elation!’ he told the Daily Mail in the aftermath.
Such is the affection he has for Running Lion, he was compelled to show a video of the five-year-old horse to delegates at a conference in Taipei as reference point for events in life.
Aside from Running Lion, Mr Howden owns another nine horses in training and has another 10 with the Qatari Sheikh Fahad At-Thani.
He is a keen horseman himself and a rugby aficionado with Howden’s sponsorship portfolio including the back of the British and Irish Lions.
A passionate promoter of rural life, regenerative farming and equestrian sport, he runs Cornbury House – the family’s spectacular 5,000-acre estate in Oxfordshire – where he has revived the Cornbury House Horse Trials, now one of the most admired shows in the British eventing calendar.
The estate is also synonymous with one of the country’s most famously posh festivals: Wilderness, the annual four-day extravaganza that takes over Cornbury Park every August.
It has become a magnet for moneyed young Londoners, fashion types, aristos and A-list-adjacent revellers.
Celebrity regulars over the years have included Cara Delevingne, Sienna Miller, Jessie Ware and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, while Princess Beatrice is among the royals spotted wandering the grounds.
The Howden sisters often attend and Ms Howden and her boyfriend Will Kayll previously hosted their own set there at the secret Riddle Stage.
Ms Howden has forged her own name as one of Britain’s most exciting young riders. She has represented Team GB at the FEI European Championships for Young Riders, competes nationally with her horses Malv and Oreo, and has spoken openly about her ambition to reach the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
She told HELLO! magazine in September: ‘There’s such talent in the British team that it would be very tough, but I think going to the Olympics and representing your country would be an amazing achievement.’
Ms Howden recently impressed at her family’s own Cornbury House Horse Trials.
Her sisters, Talitha and Kitty, are also thought to be among the most eligible women in the country.
The latter is also a keen equestrian and the pair, along with their older sister, are almost inseparable.
So much so, they recently enjoyed a cosy trip away to Copenhagen.
The former has been described by Tatler as a ‘fashion stylist by day and party queen by night’, and shares her sartorial successes on Instagram, where she boasts more than 1,950 followers.
