Inspiring teen Sophie Wastell, 17, fights on after watching her mum suddenly die from pneumonia

She did not know it then but the innate need to make her mum happy would unearth a fierce sense of determination.

Eleanor Wastell, 47, suddenly died of pneumonia in February just two years after Sophie’s dad Gary became severely brain damaged and had to go into a residential care home.

The noises Sophie, 17, mistook for her mother's stifled cries about her dad’s situation were actually her last breaths at their home in Tollesbury.

Pure panic descended over her as she was confronted with the reality of losing another parent.

She said: “First of all I couldn’t cry because of the shock and then I cried for five hours non-stop.

“I was going into her bedroom to give her a hug because we had days where we’d just console one another.

“She was lying in bed and I was saying her name, but her eyes were glazed over and her lips began turning blue.

“The first thing which worried me was how I would tell my dad. It’s at that point you want your other parent there so I can remember feeling very much alone.”

A family holiday in Hastings resulted in a tragic accident, which eventually led to doctors telling Sophie her father would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

The Tottenham Hotspur’s fan had been out watching football when he fell over a disabled ramp and broke his femur bone.

He was discharged after a week’s stay in hospital, at which point Sophie had already returned to Essex for her mock GCSE exams at Thurstable School.

Broken bones mend, Sophie thought, however nothing could have prepared the then 15-year-old for what followed.

“While I was getting ready for college one morning, suddenly I heard a loud bang. My dad had fallen over,” she said.

“According to my mum, he’d said he wasn’t feeling well. The broken leg felt fine but he was getting pain in the other one, and it was while she was taking him to the bathroom he collapsed.

“A blood clot had gone from his leg to his lungs.”

The next 23 minutes until an ambulance arrived were not only terrifying but detrimental.

Mr Wastell, now 41, was resuscitated twice and the loss of oxygen to his brain meant he was put into an induced coma at Broomfield Hospital, in Chelmsford, where he spent four months.

The family faced the reality he would never be able to come back home.

He now lives at the specialist Jacobs Neuro Centre care home in Sawbridgeworth for patients with complex and long-term neurological conditions.

Sophie is still able to have a relationship with her dad.

Although the brain trauma made him blind, he can laugh, smile and cry – as he did on the day of his wife’s funeral, which sadly he could not attend.

One of Sophie’s best memories is when after months of being unsure if he could hear them, he smiled at a funny story.

She said: “It was quite crude what my mum and I were talking about but when he smiled it was such a shock.

“So I told another story from my childhood about when I fell down in the mud and brought him down with me and it wasn’t just a massive smile - it was a grin.

“Our last holiday together stirs up mixed emotions. It was the last moment I had with him how he was so I can treasure it, but the holiday also changed my life forever.

“When something like this happens you realise you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”

Through it all, complementary therapy student Sophie has strived to make her parents proud.

This is why she has never missed a day of college at Colchester Institute even when planning her mum’s funeral.

The pair had also excitedly booked Sophie’s first driving lesson together, which she had less than a week after Mrs Wastell had died.

She said: “If my mum thought she’d prevented me from starting my driving lessons or finishing my college course, she’d be so angry, so I did it to make her happier.”

The need to drive became greater with visiting her dad in Hertfordshire from “the sticks” of Tolleshunt Major, where she now lives, while also juggling college in Colchester.

But with no income, passing her test would prove difficult until Pete Robinson, who runs the Supreme School of Motoring, stepped in.

Until now, Sophie had no idea of how a handful of the instructors plotted to see her pass the test.

Mr Robinson, 53, said: “Everyone was in shock – it’s a story you’d never believe but she desperately needed to pass so I told her we were looking to see if we can pass a student with multiple driving instructors and we’d chosen her.

“It was Lucy Boyd’s idea initially, who Sophie began driving with. We knew we needed to do something but didn’t want to give her charity.”

True to Sophie’s own word, she passed before her 18th birthday.

Driving has changed her life.

Much of her success she said is due to Keith Foster, an instructor with whom she had a special bond.

Mr Robinson said: “Keith gave every moment he could to her and Sophie always felt he was unique.

“Some people get in the car and when you ask if they’ve had a good day, their response is ‘not really’.

“Well, Sophie never had a bad day, she was always hugely enthusiastic, and I never knew where her resolve came from.

“Everyone is different but I can’t think of anyone I know who would keep it together.”

Sometimes staying strong in Sophie’s world requires “a bit of acting” and letting herself be upset around her “rock” of a boyfriend Fred Worboys, 19, and nan Sheila Bennett.

Christmas and New Year’s, when she turns 18 on January 1, is going to be tough, but even in her darkest days Sophie has nowhere to look but up.

She said: “What keeps me going is the life I can have in the future and starting my own family so I can tell my children how wonderful their nanny was and how great their granddad is.

“I’d love to manage a salon one day and could see myself training to be a bereavement counsellor.

“I just say live for the moment because you never know what could happen.”