Emily Hartridge: Waterlooville YouTube star's family will carry on her mental health work after scooter death

The family of a YouTube star and TV presenter, who died while riding an e-scooter, have said they are determined to carry on her work around promoting positive mental health.
Emily Hartridge at the launch of Friendsfest at The Boiler House,The Old Truman Brewery, on September 15, 2015. Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty ImagesEmily Hartridge at the launch of Friendsfest at The Boiler House,The Old Truman Brewery, on September 15, 2015. Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Emily Hartridge at the launch of Friendsfest at The Boiler House,The Old Truman Brewery, on September 15, 2015. Picture: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Emily Hartridge, from Waterlooville, became the first person in the country to be killed while riding an e-scooter when she was struck by a lorry in Battersea, south London, on July 12.

Her sister, Charlotte Hartridge, said the 35-year-old's family have been 'overwhelmed with the number of people who have reached out' to support them since her death.

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She told ITV's Lorraine: 'There is some comfort in that. Obviously we always knew how amazing she was but I don't think she even realised how many people she was helping.'

Ms Hartridge had more than 340,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, which featured a weekly show about proving that 'everything in the world can be explained with 10 reasons'.

Her partner, Jake Hazell, who gave Ms Hartridge the e-scooter as a birthday present in May and shared the moment on YouTube, credited her with having been so open about issues around mental health.

He told presenter Christine Lampard on the daytime television programme: 'Emily just had a gift at being able to normalise a very taboo subject.

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‘She taught me how to do it because I had my own struggles with mental health and she made it, through her Instagram and YouTube, really relatable to so many people who would not necessarily have a voice or the confidence to do so, who maybe couldn't afford expensive psychiatrists and stuff.'

Vowing 'Emily's legacy will live on', Charlotte said they are working to set up an as-yet-unnamed charity to carry on her work.

She said: 'Emily was very much about 'It's very simple, it's not rocket science'. It's just, you know, mental health meet-ups, talk about it, reduce the stigma, work with mental health professionals to maybe go into schools, talk to young people, to get them talking from a very early age.

'It's just really to carry on Emily's message of talking.'

She added: 'She would want us to, and it gives us a really positive focus out of something really horrible.'