Lady Dorit Young flanked by Gaia’s friends Roisin and Busayo

FRIENDS and family of a young artist who died suddenly after a day out cycling in the sun joined together on Saturday to unveil a memorial bench in her honour.

Gaia Young, daughter of the late Labour peer Michael Young, died aged just 25 from a sudden swelling of the brain in July 2021.

Having spent the day cycling and enjoying dinner with her mother and friends at her home in Gibson Square, Angel, she was taken to University College London Hospital (UCLH) by ambulance after complaining of a sudden and severe headache.

Within 16 hours she was effectively dead. Her mother, Lady Dorit Young, is still fighting for answers to why she died and what, if anything, could have been done differently in regards to her care.

Gaia with her uni friends in Gibson Square in 2015

The bench was unveiled on Saturday in Gibson Square, two weeks after its original intended date of her 27th birthday on March 4.

Ms Young said: “So much has happened and I’m so much on the one hand on autopilot but this was something completely different: it was honouring Gaia. It was emotional. What was also important was I met again Gaia’s young friends – having lost Gaia, I lost touch with youth and I find that very difficult. I have no young person next to me any more.”

She added: “One of my big fears is that she will be forgotten and that I will forget her, but that bench means I can sit on it, think of her and honour her.”

The bench is in the same spot as a photo taken in 2015 of Gaia with her school friends, some of whom were there on Saturday.

Gaia in 2020

It is the culmination of a GoFundMe drive to raise money for a permanent memorial for her that has so far raised more than £13,000.

Around £10,000 of the money is to go to three charities close to Gaia’s heart, including a running club based in LA which she and her mother came across while on holiday.

The bench has the following inscription: “Gaia Young 1996-2021. You were an artist painting joy into our lives. Beloved daughter of Dorit and Michael Young, inspirational social innovator.”

On it are a collection of drawings; one, by Gaia when she was just seven, depicts her father being pulled up to Heaven by two leaves, following his death in 2002.

A coronial investigation last year did not identify why she suffered brain swelling but did find that she could have survived had there had been “better management” of the possible causes.

A public hospital investigation into why Gaia died is set to start later this year.