The family of a young British influencer who died suddenly on the ‘holiday of a lifetime’ to Sri Lanka are inconsolable, a friend has said.
Ebony McIntosh, 24, was rushed to hospital on Saturday after reportedly being poisoned by pesticides used to kill bed bugs at the hostel where she was staying.
She, and another guest from Germany, died just hours later after being treated for vomiting, nausea and breathing difficulties.
A friend of Ebony’s mum Chandrika Patel said: ‘The family are completely devastated and inconsolable. They are beyond grief. She was their life.’
Ebony was the eldest of four daughters and still lived at the family home in Mickleover, Derbyshire.
One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: ‘She was a lovely girl. She has lived here since she was about three and I’ve watched her grow up.
‘What happened is heartbreaking and everyone is very shocked. I only found out this morning after my son told me about the fundraiser.
‘I can’t imagine what her poor parents and sisters are going through. I saw her before she went off on her trip, not to chat to but to wave to.’
Ebony had only left the UK for Sri Lanka on January 28, and it was her first stop on a tour of South Asia having spent months planning and researching the trip.
The exact cause of Ebony’s death is not known and a post-mortem examination is due to take place to establish the circumstances surrounding it.
But reports in Sri Lanka suggest that Ebony and the unnamed German woman may have been poisoned by noxious pesticides intended to treat bed bugs in an adjacent room 72 hours before she collapsed.
The German woman is understood to have stayed in the same room as Ebony at the Miracle Colombo City hostel in the Sri Lankan capital – which has now been shut down by investigators.
Ebony’s younger sister India posted a moving tribute to her on social media, writing: ‘To my Ebony, my beautiful sister, thank you, thank you for being my older sister, one better than I could’ve ever asked for.’
She added: ‘I want you home now tho sis pls come back! It would only be you that would go out living your best life in sri lanka…I am truly heartbroken, I can’t believe I am writing this, it feels like some nightmare I haven’t woken up from yet, we will get justice for you, you had so much life left to live.’
She ends her post by saying: ‘My heart aches I need you here, we all need you. Lets get you home Ebony.’
Ebony had 10,000 followers on Instagram and regularly posted about fashion and her travels around the world.
India has also launched a GoFundMe page to help her devastated family travel to Sri Lanka and bring her sister’s body home. More than £20,000 of the £22,000 target has already been raised.
India writes on the fundraising page: ‘On Tuesday January 28, 2025, Ebony flew from Heathrow to follow her dreams of travelling all over South Asia, starting in Sri Lanka. She was full of excitement for her adventures ahead, in typical Ebony style she had spent months researching and planning and drawing up schedules for the coming months.
‘Her trip was cruelly cut short on Saturday 1 February, when she took very ill in the hostel she was staying in.
‘Her and several others were rushed to hospital to be treated for vomiting, nausea and in Ebony’s case, difficulty in breathing. She sadly and tragically passed away on February 1 within a few hours of arriving at the hospital, they couldn’t save our beautiful girl.
‘She passed away with someone from the hostel beside her. We are endlessly grateful to this man for staying with her during her last moments.
‘The authorities in Sri Lanka are not allowed to release Ebony to us until a full post-mortem has been completed. There is also an ongoing investigation because of the tragic circumstances linked to how she died.
‘We are desperate and cannot wait any longer to see her and to bring her home.
‘We are raising money for flight costs, hotel accommodation, emergency passports, vaccinations, visas and funeral services to give her the best send off that she deserves.
‘We need to be with our beautiful Ebony as soon as possible, we hate the thought of her being alone in a foreign country. We want to be able to bring her back home safely to rest. We just need to look after our angel.’
Ebony is among a series of backpackers who have suddenly died in recent months.
British lawyer Simone White was one of six tourists who tragically died following a mass methanol poisoning at a hostel bar in Vang Vieng, Laos last November.
Simone had been travelling in the South East Asian nation with her friend Bethany, who also fell ill and phoned her mother Sue White from the hospital once she had been admitted.
Mrs White revealed the heart-breaking last message her daughter sent moments before she was poisoned which read: ‘I’m having the best time, you know, it’s an absolutely fantastic holiday.’
The fatal poisonings occurred at Nana Backpacker’s Hostel, where the holidaymakers consumed the hostel’s free whisky and vodka shots which was laced with methanol.
The hostel owner, who was taken in for questioning, has denied that his alcohol was contaminated.
Among the other victims was a 57-year-old American man named James Huston, two 19-year-old ns – Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jone – and Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21.
Last Boxing Day, a British woman and her fiancé were found dead in a Vietnamese hotel after drinking contaminated alcohol, it was claimed.
Greta Marie Otteson, 33, and her partner Arno Els Quinton, 36, went out for dinner on Christmas Eve before arriving back home at 10pm and ordering two bottles of ‘homemade’ limoncello from another restaurant.
They were later discovered dead in separate rooms by shocked resort staff.
Vietnamese police have since confirmed their deaths were caused by methanol poisoning, believed to be from the limoncello.