Shock at death of 24-year-old DJ Aaron Ritchie at Greenhill party
by Ed Targett
The popular brother of a British rower has collapsed and died at
a party aged just 24.
Aaron Ritchie, who worked as an aerial technician and DJ,
was playing music at a party near Herne Bay when he had a
seizure..
Funeral plans for the "fun-loving" DJ, pictured left, have
been put on hold after it emerged a post-mortem revealed no natural
cause of death. An inquest will now need to be held.
Aaron's elder brother, rower Dan Ritchie, said he was devastated
and described his only brother as "a great fun-loving guy".
He said: "No one deserves to die at 24. He'd had a few drinks
and went into a seizure.
"They worked on him for 30 minutes, got halfway to hospital and
he was gone. He was someone I could always talk to, have a laugh
with. He was my only brother."
"He was the sort who would go out at two in the morning to help a friend if they needed it..." – Aaron Ritchie's father John
Dad John Ritchie, from Mickleburgh Hill, added: "He was a
one-off. Aaron was Aaron. He drove us crazy but he loved life. He
wasn't particularly academically gifted but he was really talented
with his hands.
"He was the sort who would go out at two in the morning to help
a friend if they needed it. He was also a really talented
free-diver.
"I remember diving with him and he went down almost 15 metres;
no weights, no fins. He lay on the sea bed and blew 'smoke' rings
up at me. He was really gifted.
"We will soon find out when they are releasing his body as the
post-mortem shows it wasn't a natural cause of death so there will
have to be an inquest.
"I said to him a few weeks ago 'what are you doing with
yourself?' and he just told me he was enjoying life; he had this
mobile disco that he did with a friend and he seemed to be very
popular. It's a huge loss for the family."
Aaron
Ritchie collapsed and died at a party where he was a DJ
One witness, who did not want to be named, recalled the
harrowing moments after Aaron collapsed in Prospect Farm,
Greenhill, where he had a caravan, on Saturday morning.
She said: "There was a party and he was on the decks DJ'ing.
"He'd been out for a few beers in Canterbury and came back to
Prospect Farm.
"I heard people screaming and saw him having a seizure. People
put him in the recovery position and called an ambulance.
"The ambulance crew were working on him as hard as they could
for 30 minutes in the ambulance; you could see it rocking as they
tried to resuscitate him.
"They didn't leave in a hurry with sirens blaring so I guess he
must have died while still at the farm."
DJ Aaron Ritchie was Kent
rower Dan Richie's brother
Police spokesman Jon Greene said: "Kent Police was notified that
a 24-year-old man had been taken to hospital by ambulance early on
Saturday morning. He was pronounced dead shortly after
arriving."
Margate-born rower Dan Ritchie has previously won silver metals
at the Rowing World Championships and narrowly missed out on
representing Team GB at the Olympics.
06/12/12
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