Katie was well-loved and filled her life with holidays, festivals and fun.
Katie Worrell was a fun-loving 25-year-old with a real zest for life. She’d worked hard at university, studying criminology, psychology and criminal law, before achieving a Master’s degree in international business and getting a good job in financial services.
As her mum Karen explains, she liked to let her hair down too. “Katie was the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful girl, but she was also the craziest girl! She loved holidaying, she loved partying, she loved festivals, and she lived her life every day like it was her last, and I’m so glad she did that.”
The eldest child, Katie was the backbone of the family who shared an incredibly close bond with her mum. So, when Karen looked out of her bedroom window one June day in 2024 and saw a police car coming around the corner, her gut maternal instinct kicked in immediately.
“I just knew. As soon as I saw that police car, I knew something had happened,” Karen recounts. “The police officer knocked on the door, but I didn't want to open it because I didn't want to hear what they had to say.”
Finding solace with Brake
What unfolded was every parent’s worst nightmare. Katie and her partner Adam had been involved in a head-on car collision, and Katie had been airlifted to hospital in Cardiff, where she was in a critical condition. “I kept asking the police officer, ‘Is she alive?’ but they couldn’t tell me anything. We were taken to the hospital, but we didn’t get to see her. Her injuries were just too severe, and she never made it out of theatre.” Katie died in hospital, and Adam, who was 27, died at the scene of the crash.
In the following weeks and months, while the police investigated what had happened, the family tried to make sense of their immeasurable loss. Their family liaison officer gave Karen a copy of the Brake support book When someone dies in a road crash, and referred her to Brake's support service. Soon after, Brake caseworker, Helen, got in touch.
“Helen was just amazing from the start. In the beginning everything was awful, but I could talk to Helen as frankly as I wanted to, and she would listen and offer advice,” Karen says. “You feel like you’re the only one; you feel like you’re going mad and doing everything wrong. Helen reassured me that I’m not going crazy and this is all perfectly normal.”
As well as giving emotional support, Helen stood by Karen and provided guidance through the criminal justice system – a process that took two painful years to conclude. The driver of the other car involved in the crash that killed Katie and Adam had been attempting to overtake on the opposite carriageway, when he lost control and hit Adam’s car head-on. The driver was eventually convicted of causing death by careless driving and in April 2026, he was handed a 16-month suspended sentence.
When Helen came along, it would be just the two of us. And I could say exactly how I felt without upsetting anybody
Mementos of Katie
Katie’s brother Ryan was just 19 when his sister died, and Karen felt a duty to hold everything together and put on a brave face for him and Katie’s dad, Mark. Her meetings with Helen allowed her space to explore and process her feelings.
Karen explains: “In the beginning I cried a lot, but I just wanted to protect Ryan, so I would just take myself off somewhere else. When Helen came along, it would be just the two of us. And I could say exactly how I felt without upsetting anybody. If I didn’t feel like seeing Helen one week, she didn’t just drop away. She’d message and check in and say, ‘Shall we do this date instead?’ Every question I had, she had the answer to.”
Brake was also able to offer a uniquely personal way for the family to remember Katie, with a handmade memory bear sewn from her pyjamas – a gift they treasure immensely. Helen also arranged for a photo of Katie to be made into a large canvas, depicting her surrounded by sunflowers, vibrant and full of life.
“It’s got pride of place in our living room, so as soon as you walk through the door it’s the first thing you see,” Karen says. “Katie and Adam weren’t just victims of a crash; they were beautiful people and we should remember them in a happy way.”
Brake caseworker Helen arranged for a photo of Katie to be made into a canvas, and a memory bear was made of her pyjamas, helping the family to keep Katie close.
Elsewhere, the family has a memorial bench dedicated to Katie at the cemetery where she is laid to rest – a place for Karen to sit, reflect and remember. The bench was bought and dedicated to Katie from some fundraising activity Adam’s friends and family took part in. Adam has one, too, where he is buried.
“We still go there to visit Katie every day, because to us, it’s not real. You never go back to reality after this; it changes you as a person,” Karen comments.
But Brake helped her navigate some of the darkest days and find a small glimmer of light. “I don’t know how I’d have got through without Helen – I’m so grateful to Brake,” Karen says. “They never left us when other people did, and they’re the only ones who were with us from start to finish.
“Knowing somebody is always there for you, it means a lot.”
You can read more of how Adam’s friends and family joined together to fundraise for Brake here.