Much-loved mum and teacher remembered one year after she was fatally hurt outside Wigan bar

Those were the words of Gill Webster as she marked the first anniversary of the tragic death of her daughter Laura Hazeldine.

The mum-of-three was outside Fifteens, on Ormskirk Road, Pemberton, on Friday, April 8, 2022, when she was hit by a car and fatally injured.

Laura, who lived in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, had travelled north for the weekend to spend time with her family and see a house she was buying in St Helens, so could make relocate.

But tragedy struck just a few hours later when 18-year-old Jacob Gaskell got behind the wheel of a Land Rover Freelander, inhaled nitrous oxide as he drove and then ploughed into people outside the bar. He has since been jailed for nine years.

Ms Webster, who lives in Rainford, said: “She had only been in the North West for two hours when this happened. I hadn’t had chance to speak to her properly.

“We had been looking for a house and sending her photographs and she asked us to look at houses. We had a house for her and she put a deposit down on it.

"We had to phone the next day to say she wouldn’t be having the house.”

Laura was born in St Helens and grew up in Haydock and Billinge, before moving to Cambridgeshire in 2013 with her then-partner and three children, Aaron, now 28, John, 23, and Maggie, 18.

She worked at Ernulf Academy, in St Neots, initially as a teaching assistant and then as a trainee maths teacher.

Ms Webster said: “She loved it and people loved her. The kids loved her. She was liked by everybody. She would do anything for anybody. She would stay late and go that extra mile for anybody, especially her own kids.”

Just four weeks before she died, Laura was in hospital for a procedure on her heart and then doctors did a biopsy after finding a lump in her breast.

The 44-year-old was looking to the future and decided to move back to the North West, where she hoped to find a job and continue her training with the Open University.

It was the move that brought her back to the region last April, along with her sons Aaron and John.

Laura made plans to go for a drink at Fifteens with her sister Rachel, while her mum and John went to play darts at The Miners.

Ms Webster phoned Laura an hour or so later to check on her.

She said: “She was talking to me at the time of the impact. I heard a bang.

"I couldn’t get hold of her again so I ended the call and I thought something was going on.

"The next minute, Rachel phoned and said I needed to get there really quickly because there was a terrible accident and Laura had been in it.

"It all unfolded. As we turned the corner where The Swan is, it was like a bomb had gone off. It was unbelievable.”

Laura had been standing outside Fifteens when the car mounted the pavement and hit her, as well as twins Jack and Ben Atherton.

She was severely injured and received CPR from Vicky Coleman, who had been at the pub, until paramedics arrived.

Ms Webster got in the ambulance with her and it set off for Salford Royal Hospital, but diverted to Wigan Infirmary as Laura’s condition worsened.

She waited in a family room at the hospital while medics tried to save her daughter, before holding her hand as the life support machine was turned off and she died.

Laura’s family was devastated by her death, but Ms Webster felt she had to keep going to organise the funeral, deal with the coroner’s office, attend court and do other tasks.

But the trauma has now hit her and she is taking medication and receiving therapy to deal with her loss.

She said: “I have not grieved for Laura. I never cried all last year, I just carried on. I went into auto-pilot and got the funeral done and all the legalities done and everybody was broken-hearted.”

Laura’s children and her dad live together in St Neots, but may one day return to live in the North West.

While it has been an unbelievably difficult 12 months, Ms Webster was determined to mark the anniversary of Laura’s death on Saturday.

She asked Fifteens manager Racheal Hodkinson if she could put up a photograph of Laura and a plaque, and says she was more than willing to hold a special ceremony in her memory.

There were flowers and balloons at the bar and Ms Webster spoke about her daughter’s life.

Among those who attended were Jack and Ben Atherton, who were both also injured in the crash.

Ms Webster praised everyone who helped Laura and their family, both on the night she died and since.

"People just gave their coats off their backs because it was a cold night,” she said. “I want to thank anybody that was in the pub that night.

"Some people ran off after the driver. He jumped out of the car and up the alleyway. They never gave any thought for their own safety, they just went.

"As a community, that’s good community spirit.”

She praised three girls in the car with Gaskell, who were shaken up and gave statements to the police.

Ms Webster welcomed Government plans to ban nitrous oxide – also known as laughing gas – due to the risks to people who inhale it and those around them.

She said: “It can affect your brain and all sorts. It starves your brain of oxygen. I don’t think they know what they are doing really.

"I want to go round schools, especially Wigan schools, and tell pupils that I’m Laura’s mum and this is what happened to her.”