Mother honoring daughter who died from severe allergic reaction with donation in her name

DENVER (KKTV/Gray News) - A Colorado mother says she is honoring her late daughter by making a donation in her name to her former high school swim team.

KKTV reports that Sydney Meegan, 18, died unexpectedly from a severe allergic reaction last October.

The 18-year-old’s mother Jessica Meegan told KKTV that swimming was one of her daughter’s favorite things and she was in her first semester at Colorado State University after graduating from Chatfield High School.

She said when thinking of a way to honor her daughter, it was her love of swimming that came to mind.

“On the first day, she got a parka from school and wore it 24/7. She even slept in it,” Jessica Meegan said.

And now the mother said she is planning to donate parkas for all of the current high school swim team in honor of her daughter.

Jessica Meegan said the parkas will include the Chatfield High School’s logo, a reference to ongoing food allergy research and education efforts along with her daughter’s lightning bolt logo from the swim team.

She described her daughter as a magnetic, larger-than-life personality who made others feel good about themselves.

According to Jessica Meegan, the family is still not sure exactly what Sydney Meegan consumed the night she passed away. She said her daughter had a severe allergy to milk.

The Meegan family has since created a GoFundMe to help raise money for the parka donations as they said the team currently has loaner parkas.

“She would be over the moon thrilled to know that in her name other people can experience what she did with getting a parka,” her mother shared. “She was a very giving person. Sydney lived her life with more courage than anyone. She never let her allergy define her.”

The lightning bolt also became a symbol of Sydney Meegan’s life.

“In a paper written in elementary school, Sydney said that she swam like lightning,” Jessica Meegan said. “One of her last texts to me included a picture of her sorority hanging a lightning-bolt-shaped name tag on her. She said, ‘Mom, I’m lightning for life!’”

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