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Just eight months before Phil Kemp and Sarah Cobb were to get married, Sarah passed away from a blood clot that had been caused by medication she’d been taking for the past 11 years. This is her tragic story.
When Cobb was just 16 years old, she began to take a birth control pill to help improve the hormonal acne that was cropping up on her face. Because the pill was effective at reducing the blemishes on her skin, Cobb continued to take the pill, nonstop, eventually also using it as a contraceptive method.
She didn’t think anything more about it, as she was just one of the 3.5 million women in the UK alone who took the Pill. Everyone took it, so there was no need to worry about it – or so she thought.
In 2006, Cobb met Phil Kemp, a man who was also studying at her University (the University of Hertfordshire) to become a teacher. Nothing came of their friendship during school, but after they graduated, Kemp reached out to her.
“I called to wish her a happy birthday and we met up,” Kemp recalled. “Soon we realized we liked each other and began a relationship.”
Five years later, in 2011, the couple moved in together in Cobb’s hometown. “She was a real family girl – she adored her family,” Kemp explained. “It seemed right that we set up home for her to be near them.”
Life for the couple couldn’t have been better.
They were both able to find jobs teaching at local primary schools and were able to spend much of their free time together, exploring the outdoors and playing sports. It was on one of these outdoor adventures in April 2013 that Kemp finally proposed.
Cobb said yes. “It was one of the happiest moments of my life,” Kemp remembered.
Everyone in both families was thrilled for the couple. The proposal had been a long time coming. Wedding preparations began almost immediately afterward, and soon enough, Kemp and Cobb had set their wedding date for July 18, 2014.
They couldn’t wait for the day to arrive, marking the day they would finally be able to begin their life together, legally. They would first celebrate by traveling, and then ultimately settling down and starting a family together.
But then, in October 2013, Cobb began to notice a pain in her right leg. She and Kemp first put it off as minor muscle strain, since just a few days prior, Cobb had been playing netball with friends and had also worn high heels for an extended period of time.
When the pain didn’t recede even three days later, Cobb went to see the doctor. But there, they also believed Cobb’s pain to be minor muscle strain. She was prescribed OTC pain relief medication and told to stretch her leg.
The pain only persisted – and got worse. Cobb was soon struggling to walk on her own, wincing with every step. She even backed out of plans she’d made with Kemp to go to a concert because she didn’t feel up to standing.
Kemp ended up going to the concert alone.
The day after, Cobb woke up breathless. “She looked panic-stricken and couldn’t say a word,” Kemp remembered. He managed to bring his fiancée over to her parents’ place – just moments before she fell into a fit.
Kemp called for emergency paramedics, who rushed to the scene, but even as Cobb was rushed to the hospital – there was little that could be done.
“After what seemed an age, a doctor came out and I instantly knew,” Kemp said.
On Cobb’s death certificate, doctors listed that she’d died due to a blood clot in her lung, a pulmonary embolism that had been caused by her taking the contraceptive Pill for so long.
Cobb had been taking a Pill that allowed users to experience fewer side effects, but also increased the risk of users developing blood clots over time. It can be hard for women to recognize if they’re developing blood clots from their pill because some pill users may not even exhibit any symptoms at all, until it’s too late.
This is what happened to Cobb.
Doctors are advising their patients to check in with their doctors about the status of their pill.
Following Cobb’s funeral, Kemp has vowed, “I can never bring Sarah back, so I plan to help others come to terms with bereavement early in life in her memory. I think that would make her proud.”
