Woman Dies After Choking On Marshmallow While Trying To Copy Reality Show Challenge

A 30-year-old woman died after choking on a marshmallow during a holiday in Abersoch, Wales, in June, an inquest heard Thursday.

Mia Austin was suffering from locked-in syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. During the holiday, she asked her mother Carol to buy her marshmallows. She had seen a challenge on reality TV show "Love Island" in which the contestants tried to fit as many marshmallows as possible in their mouths and wanted to try the same. However, as soon as she ate a marshmallow, she began to choke and could not be saved.

“Apparently on Love Island they did a marshmallow challenge, you put marshmallows in the mouth. That's what she wanted to do with two friends,” her mother told the inquest.

Calling this an “accidental death,” Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said, "She wanted some marshmallows and one was later put in her mouth. This caused a blockage in her airway and, as she was unable to bring it up, it caused asphyxiation."

Austin used to do a lot of charity and travel the world despite having the syndrome which causes “complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles.” A book written by Austin titled "Blink of an eye" was published last year. Two days after her death, Austin was named Merseyside "woman of the year.”

"Mia was a truly inspirational young woman and an extremely popular and deserving winner of two Merseyside Women of the Year awards, Inspirational Woman and overall Woman of the Year. Her legacy will live on in the fantastic work that she did and the lives that she touched,” the organizers of the Merseyside Women of the Year awards told the inquest.