Rachel Whitear

Who was Rachel Whitear?

Rachel Jayne Whitear was a British student from Ledbury, Herefordshire who died following a heroin overdose. Her death in May 2000 led to a large-scale anti-drugs campaign in Britain, particularly in secondary schools, when her parents allowed a police photograph to be shown publicly – it showed her discoloured body collapsed in the fetal position. The school campaign was centred on a 22-minute video called Rachel's Story. The campaign was seen as an equivalent of the anti-ecstasy drive undertaken after the death of British school girl Leah Betts in 1995 and a parallel incident culminating in the death of Australian schoolgirl Anna Wood in Sydney.