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© The Daily MailDanielle Brooker was described her friends and family as a bubbly and stunning girl. She died two days after complaining about a cold
An 18-year-old student died two days after catching a common cold when the virus spread to her brain and caused it to swell.

Danielle Brooker from Barmin in Kent was at home on October 20 when she complained of cold symptoms.

Later that day she developed a headache and by the following evening she said she couldn't feel her hands and legs. Within a few hours Danielle had a fit and collapsed into unconsciousness at home.

She was taken by ambulance to Maidstone Hospital and later transferred to the specialist neurology unit at King's College Hospital in London.

Efforts to save her failed and at 11.15pm on October 22, with her mother Sharon, her brother Danny, her uncle Gary, and eight of her friends gathered around her bedside, she was pronounced dead.

The cause of her death was given as a brain infection.

Val Harmon, infection control nurse at NHS West Kent, said: 'Viral infections can, in exceptionally rare circumstances, lead to complications such as bacterial infections.

'This can then cause conditions such as inflammation of the brain. The majority of people can fight viral infections like the common cold from home with plenty of rest, fluids and a healthy diet.'

Danielle's best friend Georga Kernick, 18, was by her bedside when she died.

The teenager, who had known Danielle since she was two, said: 'Danielle was the best. I was so lucky to be in her life. She lived life to the full and had so many friends. She was always out.

'She would always be the one dancing. I miss her so much.'

However, Danielle's friends and families have taken some comfort from her wish to donate her organs after she was inspired watching a TV programme in July.

Within hours of her death, Danielle's lung, liver and kidney were given to three other patients.

Her brother Danny Brooker, 22, said: 'For an 18-year-old girl to become a donor is amazing but then Danielle was that sort of person. We had a typical brother-and-sister relationship with the odd row but we loved each other.'

Danielle's mother Sharon was too upset to talk. Her friend Karen Barnes, 43, said: 'Sharon and Danielle were the best of friends. She is absolutely devastated. It has been a massive shock. Danielle was one of a kind. She was a stunning girl, beautiful, who was always lively and bubbly, and loved everything girly.'

Danielle was studying to become a beautician at MidKent College in Maidstone. Her ambition was to become a nail technician.

Karen said: 'She wouldn't do anything she didn't want to do, but would do anything for her friends.'

Tonight Danielle's family and friends will pay tribute to her when they let off lanterns and fireworks on a heath near her home.