Beth's Legacy
Natalie Ashton
We are incredibly grateful to have Natalie on board as an Ambassador for Ketamine2Recovery. Natalie is a tireless campaigner against ketamine harm at West Lancs Ketamine Awareness, she is a powerful advocate for families, and a true warrior in the fight for awareness, education and prevention. She speaks with courage, honesty and compassion, using her personal loss to protect others and drive real change. Her voice is helping to break silence, challenge misconceptions and save lives.
This is Natalie’s story.
Beth’s Story
My daughter Beth died on 9 November 2024.
After her death, I learned things no parent ever expects to discover. Not because I was absent or unaware — but because addiction does not always look the way people expect. Sometimes it looks like intelligence, humour, loyalty, love, and a life that appears to be functioning.
Beth was beautiful inside and out. She was funny, creative, emotionally perceptive and deeply loving. She worked in a pharmacy and understood medication, risk and responsibility. She was not naïve or reckless.
What I only learned after Beth died was that she had first been introduced to ketamine at just 14 years old. She lived with a hidden, functional addiction not through deceit, but through competence. She carried on with life while suffering privately.
As ketamine began to be discussed publicly as a treatment for depression, its long-term harms were not widely understood. It wasn’t viewed with the same caution as other drugs and often slipped under the radar.
Beth was also carrying deep grief after losing her son and experiencing further family losses. Ketamine entered her life not as self-destruction, but as relief a way to numb pain and keep functioning.
Ketamine causes severe physical damage, particularly to the bladder and nervous system, creating relentless pain. Cruelly, it also temporarily relieves the very pain it causes, driving dependence. This is not about chasing a high it is about escaping agony.
Beth was admitted to hospital in September 2024, critically unwell. Despite her known ketamine use and severe pain, she was discharged without specialist intervention. At the time, I trusted this meant she was safe. I now know how dangerous that moment was.
Six weeks later, Beth died...
Only afterwards did I understand how quickly ketamine damage escalates, how common hidden addiction is, and how many young people are already living with permanent harm. Beth’s story is not rare.
Today, I work with families, young people and communities affected by ketamine use. I speak publicly, support recovery spaces and advocate for early education and honest conversations. Silence does not protect children. Delay costs lives.
Beth was loved, supported and valued. What failed her was lack of awareness and systems still catching up to the reality of ketamine harm.
Her legacy is prevention, honesty and refusing to look away so other families do not have to learn this too late.
Natalie's Social Links
https://www.facebook.com/share/1PAXcDBCk1/
West Lancs Ketamine Awareness (@westlancsketawareness) | TikTok