A KEEP-FIT fanatic who was backpacking around Australia has died after collapsing while working out in a gym.
Karen Stocks, 30, from Edinburgh, suffered a brain haemorrhage at the Fitness First gym in Indooroopilly, near Brisbane. She was taken to hospital but could not be revived by doctors.
Ms Stocks, who was single, had been travelling for six months i
n Australia and New Zealand. She was on a year-long working visa and wrote recently on a social networking website that she was saving for a trip up the Australian coast to Cairns and Port Douglas.
The keen surfer and swimmer, who joined the Brisbane gym only last week, had run several marathons and been a regular at Scotland's oldest amateur boxing club, Leith Victoria, where she worked out to keep fit. She was one of several young women to train there after all-women nights were started.
Although she trained with boxers, she had never suffered any blows to the head. However, she had spoken about taking up fighting after returning from her travels.
Ms Stocks, who lived with her aunt in the south side of Edinburgh, initially joined the club for self-defence lessons ahead of her travels, but the coach, Jack Graham, said she "simply loved keeping fit".
He told The Scotsman: "She was training with us around three times a week and would be keen to do speed-work at the track at Meadowbank or runs up Arthur's Seat. She had a personal instructor before she joined the club, but told me she much preferred training with us.
"Although she was very keen to learn to box, it was all about keeping fit as far as she was concerned. We've not got a clue what has happened, other than she was just working out."
Emily Majendy, 19, an Edinburgh University student who trained with Ms Stocks at the club, said: "It was a complete shock to hear about Karen. She's been keeping in regular contact with everyone at the club and been sending postcards from everywhere she's been, which we've stuck up on the walls.
"She was really into running and fitness, and we went training a lot together. We'd become really good friends.
"She was really bubbly, and although she was 30 she seemed a lot younger.
"It hasn't really sunk in what's happened to her. It's terrible."
Ms Stocks, a care worker for the elderly in Edinburgh, had recently secured work at a cancer unit in Brisbane. She had previously been working as a nanny.
On her Bebo website, she spoke of her dreams of "working in Africa caring for the children and making a big difference to someone's life". She had told friends she was having the "best time ever" on her travels.
Just a couple of days ago, she posted a Bebo message to a friend saying: "I'm doing OK, staying up in Indooroopilly just outside Brisbane, staying with a friend's mate for a few weeks.
"Got a job in a cancer unit caring. It's pretty tough going but money is OK, but the hours are a killer!"
Denise McFadden, her cousin, said: "She was a lovely, outgoing person, who loved to travel, loved meeting and helping new people, and was popular and loved by everyone who knew her.
"She lived for her family and friends and helping others, and staying fit as well – which, ironically, killed her. Karen was loving Australia but missed her family as well – she was saving up for her return flight when this happened.
"She loved to travel and was living her dream. She had a great zest and outlook on life and will be missed terribly."
Ms Stocks is the second female Scottish backpacker to die in the Antipodes this year.
Karen Aim, from Holm, in Orkney, was murdered in the town of Taupo, on New Zealand's North Island, on 17 January.
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with murder, grievous bodily harm and aggravated robbery in connection with Ms Aim's death.
The full article contains 680 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
