The mum who went out with her friends on a hot summer day and never came home

It was a sweltering hot Saturday in late June when Stephanie Thorpe met her friends at a pub in Farnworth.

The group had arranged to meet before going to the Restricted Forest dance music festival in Blackburn and the mum was excited for what fun lay ahead.

On the way to the event, Stephanie took half of a White Dove ecstasy pill - completely unaware it would end her life just hours later.

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Despite the desperate attempts to save her, the much-loved mum's temperature soared to 42 degrees before she died. She was just 32 years old.

An inquest into her death held this week heard how Stephane would have had little idea of the horrific game of roulette she was playing. With super-strength ecstasy hitting the streets, experts have warned that many who chose to take recreational drugs no longer 'know what they are getting'.

Ecstasy - or MDMA - is a social drug; those who take it tend to do so at parties or festivals. Unlike opioids, such as heroin, ecstasy is not addictive and it is rarely taken other than at big social events.

Its use was curtailed during Covid due to lockdown restrictions. But experts have noted how, following the lifting of restrictions, there has been a significant upswing in the drug's strength.

Pills can now be up to four times' stronger than pre-Covid. For Stephanie, who had taken recreational drugs at music events before, the consequences of the shift proved fatal.

A study in 2002 found that the strength variation in White Dove ecstasy pills - which Stephanie took - ranged wildly from "next to no active ingredients to some which were almost pure".

Dr Mark Clayton is an expert of sorts when it comes to taking ecstasy at music