Jessica Lally: ‘Beautiful’ bride-to-be, 26, died in bucking bronco tragedy on night out

A “kind and funny” bride-to-be died when she went into a cardiac arrest after falling from a bucking bronco.

Jessica Lally had been on a night out with friends at the Broncos Rodeo Bar in Sheffield when the tragedy occurred.

She had been on the bucking bronco ride before going into cardiac arrest.

During the night out last October Jessica decided to have a go on the American themed bar’s in-house mechanical bull.

‘It’s been heartbreaking’

Her mum Joan said: “She was just on a night out – she’d not had a lot to drink, they’d been for a meal actually and they called in there afterwards.

“I don’t know why she decided to go on it, but was just having fun I suppose.

“She’d just gone out for a night out and then we had police at the door at midnight.

“We’re still going through it now. Sometimes we still fall into pieces; it’s been heartbreaking.”

Jessica, from Kimberworth, Rotherham, worked as a manager for jewellery company Pandora and had been planning to get married to her partner.

Her mum said she had “her whole life ahead of her”.

She said: “She was such a beautiful girl, so kind and funny and she’d got her whole life planned; they were going to get married.”

Raising funds for defibrillators

Jessica’s family are now raising money to fund lifesaving defibrillators in her memory.

They have reportedly raised over £10,000 so far.

Currently, her cousin Michael Noone, 47, is preparing to take on 26 half-marathons in the space of 12 weeks – one for every year of Jess’ life.

His GoFundMe page reads: “As an emergency worker myself I understand the importance of introducing a defibrillator to someone as soon as possible who is suffering a cardiac arrest.”

To find out more or to donate to Michael’s fundraiser, visit his GoFundMe page.

‘This incident was tragic for all involved’

Christopher Brown, general manager of Broncos, said in a statement: “In October there was an incident involving a young lady in our venue who appeared to suffer from a fit and then after receiving medical help, sadly passed away.

“From the CCTV the lady in question appeared to be out having a good time with her friends and excited to ride the bull.

“She passed all of our safety checks before mounting the bull. She then very quickly after the ride appeared to have lost consciousness sliding off under her own body weight.

He went on to say that Jessica was not thrown off the bull, and said: “The bull was going for a matter of seconds while it was moving on the slowest speed. This speed is mainly used for photos and isn’t fast enough for people to fall off normally.

“The venue decided to close the following week allowing our staff to recover from the shock and allowing police and the council do their investigation.

“The council’s investigation shows that the cause of death was not related to the bull.

“Here at Broncos we pride ourselves in customer safety and work hard to try and give our customers an enjoyable time.

“This incident was tragic for all involved and our thoughts are with the family.”

A version of this story was originally published on our sister title, The Star.

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