• Charlotte Woodiwiss' uncle Matt urged her friends to 'learn' from her death
  • Police have not ruled out a link between her death and that of four others all believed to have taken super-strong drug and lived in a 60 mile radius
  • Two men died in the Greater Manchester area on Sunday and Monday

By Jaya Narain, James Tozer And Nazia Parveen

PUBLISHED: 08:19 EST, 22 January 2013 | UPDATED: 19:37 EST, 22 January 2013


A deadly batch of super-strength ecstasy known as 'Dr Death' is suspected to be behind a spate of tragic deaths among young partygoers.

Five people have died in the last month – three last weekend just hours after they apparently took the drug.

The first was 20-year-old Charlotte Woodiwiss, a promising student in the final year of an art degree.

Her body was found on December 22 in a flat in the picture-postcard town of Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire. As her funeral was held there yesterday, tributes from friends were piling up on a Facebook tribute page.

Warning: Charlotte Woodiwiss, who died in Derbyshire last month after apparently taking the drug. Her uncle has issued a warning to young people to think before they use such pills

Warning: Charlotte Woodiwiss, who died in Derbyshire last month after apparently taking the drug. Her uncle has issued a warning to young people to think before they use such pills

Jordan Chambers, 19, from Wigan, left, who died on Sunday and Gareth Ashton, 28, right, who died on Monday. It is thought they both took contaminated ecstasy tablets

Beside them was an emotional message from Charlotte's uncle, warning teenagers of the perils of taking illegal party drugs.

Dr Death, often shaped like Love Hearts sweets and also called Pink Ecstasy, has the chemical name PMMA. It is thought to be behind a wave of hospital admissions with nine people being rushed in for treatment in the last week.

It is sold to clubbers for as little as 3 a pill and dealers claim it offers a similar high to ecstasy (MDMA) but it is around five times as strong and causes a dangerous rise in body temperature.

The effects also take longer to act than ecstasy causing some users to take pill after pill, leading to fatal doses.

Earlier this month PMMA was linked to the deaths of eight revellers in Canada and there have been other deaths in Eire, Norway and Denmark.

The five suspected UK victims – Charlotte and four men – all died within a 60-mile radius in Manchester, Liverpool and Derbyshire. Charlotte was a student at Macclesfield College in Cheshire.

On her Facebook page, 40-year-old Matt Woodiwiss wrote: 'I'm Charlotte's uncle and am absolutely devastated by my family's loss. Our beautiful girl gone far too early. I am heartened by the fact that so many of you have commented but let this tragic sequence of events teach you a few things.

Charlotte Woodiwiss, 20, from Chapel-le-Frith and Dale Yates, 18, from Buxton, both of whom died in December, sparking police to issue a warning of the perils of using pink 'ecstasy'

'Think long and hard about how you live your lives, about which group of people you hang about with and about who influences you.

It's all very well writing a few "nice" things on a FB wall but if you carry on living your lives as so many of you are then – as much as it seems like a laugh at the moment – you are running the risk of your families being torn apart with grief like mine is.

'So, by all means quote the poems and write the testimonials, but don't let our little girl's tragic death be in vain. Some of you have the chance to be shining stars whilst still here, and believe me that is far better than being one in death.

'So remember Charlotte with happiness, remember her vitality, carry on loving her as some of you did, and most of all learn from this as that is the best testament that you can give to my beautiful niece.'

The second victim was 18-year-old Dale Yates, who died in a flat in the neighbouring town of Buxton on December 23.

His father Lawrence Beever, 40, said: 'So many kids take these recreational drugs but they just don't know what's in them. They go out to parties, they see their friends  taking them, so they have some too, and they don't realise they're playing Russian roulette. These pills are deadly, and whoever made them needs to be caught and locked up.'

Mr Beever, who is separated from Dale's mother, Carol, said his son was 'just a really lovely, likeable lad' who hoped to follow him into the offshore oil and gas industry.

In the wake of the deaths, police made 11 arrests in a series of raids in Derbyshire and warned recreational users of the dangers of using Pink Ecstasy.

Then last weekend three men died after taking similar drugs within the space of 24 hours. Gareth Ashton, 28, a plasterer  from Wigan, suffered an adverse reaction after he apparently took the drug and began sweating profusely.

He went out into his girlfriend's freezing garden to cool down and collapsed from a massive heart attack.

Friends paid tribute to Jordan Chambers, pictured, saying he was 'such a nice lad' who will be 'truly missed'

Paramedics were called and he was taken to hospital but suffered another heart attack and died later the same night.

His girlfriend, Catherine Fulton, 29, revealed that their ten-day-old daughter, Millie Mai, had died of a chest infection a year ago.

She said: 'It was the one year anniversary since her death on January 16 and then four days later Gareth had gone too.

Christmas was hard because it was without Millie and we should have had her there.

But Gareth was my rock and I wouldn't have been able to get over her death without Gareth.

This has come as a massive shock not least because he wasn't a drug abuser. I'd tell other people just not to do drugs.

It ruins the people who are left behind and we have to pick up the pieces. I want this to make people think twice and I hope this opens their eyes to other people's grief.'

Jordan Chambers, 19, also from Wigan, became the second fatality of the weekend after taking the lethal drug .

A 26-year-old football fan from Glasgow, whose name has not been released, also died on Sunday after collapsing at a guesthouse in Liverpool having taken the ecstasy style drug following a football match at Anfield.

Yesterday police in Greater Manchester confirmed that toxicology tests were taking place and that they are liaising with other forces. They have arrested two men, aged 33 and 34, on suspicion of supplying a controlled drug.

What the contaminated tablets could look like: Pink coloured ecstasy tablets in a heart shape which can be lethal

What the contaminated tablets could look like: Pink coloured ecstasy tablets in a heart shape which can be lethal

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The government's drugs policy is not working and never has. You need to decriminalise and control the supply of drugs (especially hard drugs). Then, ensure the sentencing for drug dealers is increased. This way you take away the power from the drug dealers and by controlling the supply, you ensure that people get the help they need. The current policy of criminalising the users has failed. Remember: decriminalisation is not the same as legalisation.

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On the 14th January, this newspaper reported that Baroness Meacher said, ""Taking drugs is like having a cup of coffee." I wonder if she lets her children take them?

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Its horrible these people have died as a result of taking contaminated drugs. I personally dont use ecstacy or any chemical drug but the only reason they are "contaminated" is because they were created by criminal gangs who funny enough do not particularly care what they cut the drugs down with. Throughout history people have always taken drugs in some form or another to get a high and this will never stop. The safest thing to do is to decriminalise the recreational drugs to ensure there are no more contaminated batches..This would also practically destroy the black market drug trade and cut any drug gangs profits overnight..I would also wager it would lead to a lot less drug related violence between these gangs. It certainly wouldnt solve all our problems but it would certainly help..Look forward to DM not posting this comment as per usual lol..

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I can't believe people are willing to put their lives on the line for a high still. They have no idea where these tablets come from. I truly hope that people take note of these sad losses. IT IS NOT WORTH IT! RIP to all who have so sadly died from these killer tablets out there.

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I just don't understand why people take drugs.

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Here we go, if you have never taken drugs then please, put a sock in it. Your opinion is void. R.I.P to the unfortunate ones who were as unlucky as a lottery winner is lucky.

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The current drug policies continue to encourage the unregulated distribution of truly dangerous substances, often mixed in with much more harmless recreational drugs that have been used for a long time with comparatively few problems . If this was actually pure mdma it's most likely that these young people would still be alive. There wouldn't be a new designer drug flooding the market every other week, no m-kat or bath salts. The illegality of mdma is what produced these pills.

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"YOU CANNOT ENSURE PUBLIC SAFETY WHILE RECREATIONAL DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL. If you think I'm wrong, explain why.- AndyT , London, 22/1/2013 14:19"........................Total rubbish. You mean 'you cant ensure drug users safety while recreational drugs are illegal'. The general public who dont touch these drugs are fine thanks. What will happen with legalisation is a surge in drug use and an increase in crime and mental illness and Britain will be further towards the situation where the selfish pursuit of personal pleasure is the only aspiration that most young people have. Also more users will mean more deaths from things like drinking too much water, over heating ands simple over doses. Legalisation cant prevent all the dangers. Sorry but the deaths of a few users of illegal drugs, tragic as most of them are, is better than the alternative that legalisation offers.

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more people will b dying of alcohol intake than ecstacy in the long run!

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Erm they were contaminated pills, that's why they died, if they were legal they would have been pure MDMA - safer than paracetamol

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