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A woman blacked out and stopped breathing as she tried to see how many Jaffa Cakes she could fit in her mouth for a party trick.

Mother-of-one Bethan Gaskin got the snacks lodged in her throat as she desperately tried to spit them out.

The 24-year-old collapsed at home in Bourne, Lincolnshire, on Friday, February 22 and was rushed to hospital.

The beauty therapist suffered a heart attack and died five days later at Peterborough City Hospital, the Rutland and Stamford Mercury reports.

Her devastated adoptive mum Michele has today spoken out to warn other people of the dangers of extreme food challenges.

(Image: Facebook)

The 52-year-old said: "I remember raising my eyebrows when Bethan started the game, thinking 'how old are you?' and telling her to spit them out.

"She was like a little hamster with her cheeks bulging.

"She danced off to the toilet to get rid of them and it was only a while later we realised she had been gone a long time."

A short time later a friend went to check on Bethan and found her slumped on the bathroom floor.

Her desperate mum dialled 999 and one of her friends performed CPR while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Michele said: "In my heart I knew we had lost her before they put her into the ambulance. Too much time was passing."

(Image: PA)

Bethan was in hospital for five days before doctors realised the extent of her brain damage.

The family gathered at her bedside to say their goodbyes on Wednesday, February 27.

Michele sobbed: "She looked perfect and so beautiful. It was just like she was sleeping.

"So many people have said they play a similar game with marshmallows. Even my 90-year-old aunt said she does it with Maltesers.

"This just shows how fragile we are."

The family also told of the heartbreaking moment they told Bethan's three-year-old daughter Lili about her mum's death.

Michele said: "I just told her that mummy was very sick and the doctors couldn't make her better so she has died and we can't see her again.

"We talk about Bethan with Lili and she has asked a few times when we are going to mummy's."

(Image: Facebook)

Devastated dad Joe, 57, added: "We just tell her that mummy is an angel in heaven now."

"It was the hardest thing to have to answer all those questions when we had just said goodbye."

Bethan donated her heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas and one of her lungs.

Joe, a painter and decorator, added: "At the minute it's too soon, but I think in time it will help us to know that Bethan saved other people."

Joe and Michele adopted Bethan when she was six months old as well as her brother Joseph when he was born two years later.

Bethan had worked as a carer and was hoping to pursue a career in the beauty industry.

Dad Joe added: "There was more make-up in her flat than anything else.

(Image: Facebook)

"Bethan enjoyed spending time with her friends and also took part in medieval re-enactments.

"She was also looking forward to raising Lili and giving her all the opportunities she enjoyed herself as a child.

"Her life was just beginning to look up after a tough time."

In a tragic twist, Michele found a Mother's Day card Bethan had bought for her while sorting through her belongings.

She said: "Bethan would normally leave everything until the last minute but my nagging was obviously paying off.

"I found a card that she had bought for me but not written on.

"It was heartbreaking to find it but I'll still put it up on Mother's Day."