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Holly Hagan has opened up to the Daily Mail for the first time about the harrowing final moments of her sister’s life after she tragically died from an accidental drug overdose at just 19.
The former Geordie Shore star, 33, broke down in tears as she told how her sister, Darci Rose Gibson, died just 48 hours after taking crystal MDMA, revealing the devastating chain of events that led to her passing in October.
In an exclusive interview, Holly recounted how her sister had gone to Manchester’s Warehouse Project nightclub, where she mixed the drug into her drink. Within hours, Darci suffered two cardiac arrests, leaving her fighting for her life in hospital.
Holly, who is mother to two-year-old Alpha-Jax and recently announced she is expecting her second child with footballer husband Jacob Blyth, 33, described the unbearable sight of her younger sister lying in a hospital bed, her body covered in tubes and wires, blood pouring from her mouth and nose.
Despite desperate prayers from the family, including Darci’s parents, Holly’s mother Vicky and stepfather John, they knew the moment they saw her, with doctors having taped her eyes shut, that there was no hope of recovery.
Holly says the anguished screams of her grieving mother will be ‘etched’ into her mind forever, as she now speaks out in the hope of raising awareness about the deadly risks of recreational drug use – the very dangers that have torn her family apart.
Holly said: ‘My stepdad John was bringing Darci and her best friend to Manchester because they were going on a night out, she loved Manchester and going out in Manchester. We are from quite a small town called Middlesborough so it’s nice to go out in the bigger cities.
‘He is the type of dad who would drive her anywhere she wanted and take her places, even a two-hour trip to Manchester. The next day we were all going to be together, my stepdad, Darci, and my son Alpha-Jax, that was the plan.
‘We all went to bed that night and around 5am I heard a light knock on my door, and I thought my son had woken up. But I looked at my phone to see the time, and I had 130 missed calls. My heart dropped and you know when your whole body goes into panic.
‘The first message I saw was in capital letters, saying, “We are with your sister, you need to get to Manchester Royal Infirmary right now, please call us back”, and that was at 2am. My whole body was in fight mode; I sat on the toilet shaking.’
Holly described how her worst fears were realised the moment she arrived at the hospital and saw the full extent of Darci’s condition.
She was told by doctors that her sister had taken crystal MDMA during the night out, and unaware of the drug’s deadly potential, the hours that followed would prove fatal.
MDMA, often known as ‘Molly’ or ‘Ecstasy’, is a recreational ‘party drug’ that can leave users feeling happy, energised, and more sociable. It comes in several forms, including pills, powder, capsules, and crystals.
Holly explained that while Darci had never taken MDMA in crystal form before, she had experimented with drugs in the past including occasions such as attending the music festival Creamfields.
‘Darci went out that night and for the first time had taken the crystal version of MDMA, we know that she put an unknown quantity in her drink,’ Holly explained.
‘I’m not sure why she did but the event she was going to, The Warehouse Project, it’s a pretty drug heavy event, I have been there myself and I know what happens.
‘My one regret is not messaging her saying, “Are you taking anything tonight? What are you taking? Please be careful.”‘
‘Some people will say she was reckless for taking drugs but in the realm of taking drugs, when I have spoken to her friends who have been out with her, and been to Creamfields with her and the festivals, festivals are rife for drug taking, we all know that.
‘Her friends say she was always so sensible, she would never take a whole pill, she would take a quarter, and it was only at these kinds of events that she would do that.
‘I still to this day don’t know why I didn’t message her and I don’t there if there’s anything I could have done to change anything but all I know is that she had the bag, she’s in a dark club and being naïve and not realising how much a quantity is because she’s never taken a version of this drug before, she has poured it into her drink.
‘Her friend said there was still a lot left but if you have seen that drug before you know it comes in powder and there are rocks in there as well. What happened is possibly the bigger rocks had gone into her drink, and it still looked like there was a lot left in the bag, but it was enough for it to be an overdose.’
As Darci’s older sister by 13 years, Holly has struggled to piece together her final hours, retracing the teen’s steps and speaking to her friends and boyfriend who were with her that night.
Holly explained that after taking the drug, Darci initially felt unwell and vomited, but after being comforted outside the venue by her boyfriend, she seemed well enough to continue her night, even filming videos on her phone.
But just 45 minutes later, Darci’s condition took a sudden, catastrophic turn. Medical staff at The Warehouse Project rushed to her aid when she went into cardiac arrest, acting immediately to try to save her life.
Holly said: ‘She went to the medical tent and at this point she is presenting okay but the chemical reaction in her body is still happening, and no one knows what is going on.
‘She got really paranoid, couldn’t recognise anyone and was screaming like she was being attacked. Then she collapsed.
‘The Warehouse Project had two ambulances, 11 medical staff working that night, and nine of them were working on my sister.
‘She went into cardiac arrest, and they brought her back in a minute, so she had the best chance of survival at that point. They got her in the ambulance and straight to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where she went into cardiac arrest again, and they brought her back with chest compressions.
‘They had to shock her again, but this was because her heart was beating out of rhythm. At this point they were trying to keep her alive and stable. She was on dialysis; her kidneys had completely packed up.
‘The doctors told us very frankly that she had taken a quantity of MDMA, her body had heated up to a point of extreme heat, they cooled her as best as they could and were keeping her stable but they wouldn’t know the extent of everything until she was stable and they could do a brain scan.’
Holly described the pain and shock her parents felt when doctors delivered the devastating news that their daughter was brain-dead.
She recalled her mother breaking down completely, crying uncontrollably, while her stepfather John, now grieving the loss of his only biological daughter, was left utterly stunned by the events.
The family was later taken to see Darci for the first time in her hospital bed, where she lay surrounded by sick and elderly patients. Holly remembered: ‘To see my sister, just 19, lying in that same ward was absolutely horrendous.’
She said that moment was the most difficult of her life, confronting for the first time the brutal reality of Darci’s condition.
Holly said: ‘I opened the curtain, and I have never seen anything like that in my life. I hope no parent or sibling ever has to see anything like that.
‘She had tubes in her nose, in her mouth, she had bruises everywhere from where they had cannulas wherever they could put a cannula, she had tubes, needles in her neck, she had blood pouring out of her nose, which they were continuously cleaning, she had blood pouring from her mouth… they actually taped down her eyes for us because her eyes were – she looked dead. It was not a nice sight.
‘There were machines covering the entire room, one of them helping her breathe, one of them on her heart, one of them on her kidneys, just trying their absolute best with all of this technology to keep her alive.’
What followed was every family’s worst nightmare. For Holly, who had grown up with Darci until she was nine, being told by doctors that her sister was brain-dead and that there were no other options was surreal and almost impossible to comprehend.
Darci underwent a brain scan, but the results confirmed the unimaginable, their beloved daughter and sister would be gone forever.
Although Holly could barely bear to hear the news, she felt a small measure of relief when doctors confirmed Darci’s time of death, knowing the family could grieve and find some closure, rather than watch her continue with a poor quality of life.
Holly said: ‘We sat in the room, me, my mam, my stepdad, the neurologist, and two nurses, and he said that basically, the MDMA had heated her body so much that it caused her muscles to spasm, and it released sodium, potassium, and it basically poisoned her.
‘With her body heating up so much, her brain was swelling tremendously, but they didn’t know how much until they did the scan. They said that the swelling was very extreme and they presumed there would be no signs of life when they did the tests.
‘They did some tests to look for signs of brain activity. They looked at her pupils, not a thing. They stopped her oxygen for 10 minutes to see if she would breathe on her own, nothing. They do something to the gag reflex to see if she will cough, nothing. They put water in her ear, which is meant to do something to her eyes, nothing.
‘When they test the oxygen, they test the carbon dioxide in the blood, so they take blood samples at certain times, to see if there were any changes but there was nothing from anywhere.
‘This will sound awful, but in a way, I can’t say glad, but it was a better option than there being some signs of life and for her to come out of that in a way that wouldn’t have been her, and she wouldn’t have any quality of life. That would have been so unbelievably difficult for everyone.
‘It being so final, there was nothing else anybody could do, it was closure. She was 100 per cent brain-dead. Sometimes I can say things too bluntly and it can come across in a weird way but unless you have experienced it, you have no idea how you’re going to react or feel. She died at 16:23.’
The only solace for Holly came in being able to say goodbye to Darci, and for that, she is deeply grateful to the medical staff at Manchester Royal Infirmary, whom she described as ‘angels’.
The sisters’ close bond was clear from the moment Darci was born, with Holly even choosing her name.
As Darci grew into her teenage years, Holly, who found fame at 18 on the MTV reality show Geordie Shore alongside Vicky Pattison and Charlotte Crosby, said she would confide in her, sharing her secrets and seeking her advice.
At the time of her death, Darci was working as a cocktail waitress, a job Holly said she loved, and had only recently passed her driving theory test, excited at the prospect of soon buying her first car.
In her final act as a big sister, Holly, in the middle of the night, bought new pyjamas for Darci to wear and carefully brushed her hair, complete with her £800 extensions.
She even recorded Darci’s heartbeat on her phone, a small comfort amid the overwhelming pain, a pain that feels even sharper with Christmas, a time they would normally spend together as a family, only weeks away.
She said: ‘We were all there and we had an opportunity to say goodbye. My mam rang me and she didn’t know how to leave the room because she knew it was the last time she was going to see her. Eventually I dragged her out. But before that, I had the opportunity to record her heartbeat. We had the opportunity to say goodbye.
‘I got her some pyjamas, which seems crazy, I was in Asda or Tesco in the middle of the night shopping for pyjamas for my dead sister.
‘I said, please can you brush her hair because she’s just got £800 hair extensions and my mam will be absolutely fuming that her hair is in knots, so they brushed her hair, they put her hair in a bobble and that was the end.
‘We were hearing words like “morgue”, my mam was just breaking down, her daughter was in a morgue, it was just absolutely horrendous.’
Holly hopes that speaking about the horrific experience she and her family have endured will serve as a warning to any young person considering taking drugs.
Having built her career on a reality show where heavy drinking and nights out in Newcastle’s clubs were routine, she understands how drugs can appear to be a harmless, fun experiment.
But after losing Darci, she says she is more wary of drugs than ever before – even taking simple painkillers like paracetamol, especially while she is pregnant.
She said: ‘I really want people to take from this that just because you have taken a drug before, and it hasn’t had a negative impact on you, it doesn’t mean you are safe.
‘Every single time that you take a drug, you are playing with fire. As safe as you think you are being, what we have learned from this is that you can make a mistake and accidentally have slightly too much. You do not want your family to go through what we have gone through.
‘I get that it’s a fun time on drugs and for the majority, they get to go home at the end of the night but for the one odd person, they don’t.
‘When I look at paracetamol now… honestly, anyone who knows me and has seen what we have gone through, anyone who would have considered it before would be very put off. All of our friends, I know that no one would ever touch a drug ever again.
‘If her story can prevent somebody, because you’re not immune, if this can happen to me and my family, it can happen to anyone.
‘I would love to do a documentary one day and look at certain areas like where I grew up, why is drug use so prevalent? Why do we rely on drugs to have a good time when we’re young? Is there a way it can be done safely?’
Cruelly, vicious trolls have even claimed that Darci ‘deserved’ what happened because she had taken drugs.
But Holly insists: ‘She deserves compassion and empathy. She was a 19-year-old girl who made a mistake – and 90 per cent of the people in that club did the same thing and went home to their families the next day.’
What is crystal MDMA and how can it lead to death?
Crystal MDMA is a term used to refer to the crystalline powder form of a synthetic chemical called 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine, which is the active ingredient in ecstasy tablets.
MDMA is also known as Molly, MD and Mandy, and is a Class A drug in the UK.
When taking an ecstasy tablet, the MDMA is not visible, but when bought in crystal form it has a granular appearance and an off-white, yellow, grey, purple, or light brown colour.
Crystal MDMA is most commonly sold for around £40 per gram, and either appears as small coloured rocks, or is powdered, taking on a form like granulated sugar. It might be referred to as MDMA ‘on the rock’ or as ‘shards’.
It can be taken as a bomb, wrapped in a rizla and ingested like a pill, dabbed on to the tongue and gums with a fingertip, or sprinkled into drinks.
Many users believe that taking crystal MDMA is safer than taking an ecstasy tablet because it allows more control over the dosage compared with taking an ecstasy tablet, and they can feel more confident that what they’re ingesting is pure and not cut with other street drugs or fillers.
However, this confidence is misplaced. Previous studies in the US have found that drugs sold as ‘pure’ MDMA are often mixed with other substances, such as ketamine, amphetamines, or synthetic cathinones (known as ‘bath salts’).
Ian Hamilton, Associate Professor at University of York, told the Daily Mail: ‘Crystal MDMA is significantly stronger than its pill equivalent – many people will not be aware of this, particularly those that haven’t used the drug before.
‘For more experienced users the risks of harm are not as great, although naïve, and inexperienced users of crystal MDMA can still develop serious problems including potential fatal overdose.
‘The other important difference between MDMA pills and crystal is the speed at which it is absorbed by the body, crystal is absorbed much faster which can prove to be dangerous.
‘Faster absorption means the effects of the drug act more rapidly this can lead to significant health risks such as respiratory failure and fatal overdose.’
In all its forms, MDMA gives users a sense of euphoria and energy, explaining its popularity on the club, rave and festival scenes, with effects usually felt 20-40 minutes after taking it.
As the drug enters the blood and nervous system, a period known as ‘coming up’, users may experience an elevated mood, higher levels of empathy to friends and strangers, and some mildly hallucinogenic visions.
It can also affect the user’s other senses, particularly enhancing their sense of touch, sound and sight, making experiencing music, lights, and other people more enjoyable.
MDMA is both a stimulant and an empathogen, and increases brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, the happy hormones, and norepinephrine which controls our fight or flight system.
The effects continue until the drug begins to wear off, which can take up to 10 hours, depending on the dosage, what other drugs and alcoholic drinks were consumed, and the user’s tolerance levels.
The drug can also cause jaw clenching, teeth grinding, and muscle spasms which can affect the ability to urinate.
Other physical side effects include an increased heart rate and blood pressure, blurred vision, nausea and sweating.
As the drug wears off, users can feel ‘hollow’, and experience anxiety, paranoia, confusion, and depression, a state referred to as a ‘comedown’, which can persist for days after use.
MDMA can lead to death through heatstroke (hyperthermia) because of how it raises the body’s internal temperature, and because it is usually taken in hot and crowded environments with vigorous dancing.
Once the body temperature has reached over 40°C (104°F), it can trigger organ failure and respiratory collapse.
Because of how hot it can make people feel, MDMA can make people sweat profusely, quickly depleting their sodium levels.
To cool down, they might drink a lot of water, which can cause the sodium levels in the blood to drop below safe levels, a condition called hyponatremia.
When this happens, it means that fluid seeps into cells and causes headaches, confusion, nausea, fatigue, muscle cramps, and in severe cases, seizures, coma, organ failure and death.
While a lot of MDMA deaths are a ‘polydrug’ fatality, where more than one drug was involved, in 2023, 79 deaths were recorded in England and Wales with MDMA mentioned on the death certificate.
In 2018, there were 92 deaths recorded.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data for the year ending March 2024, an estimated 2.2 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 years in England and Wales reported using ecstasy/MDMA in the last year.
Jan Gerber of Paraclesus Recovery told the Daily Mail that MDMA isn’t considered an addictive drug, but people’s tolerance to it can increase quickly.
He said: ‘If it’s consumed daily or every few days, the the effect flattens very quickly, and the come down, the after effects, get more and more severe.
‘There is a risk for dependence, which is mostly seen in people from the clubbing or raving scenes where everybody around them takes it regularly.
‘People learn that taking this substance gets them into a very emotionally light and loving place, and the craving for that feeling can make them want to take it again.’
