Toby Young’s half sister, 25, died suddenly after falling ill at home with headache during heatwave

Writer and commentator Toby Young’s half sister has died suddenly after complaining of a headache.

Gaia Young, 25,  passed away on July 21 after being rushed to hospital after falling ill during a heatwave.

She had taken ill during dinner and lay herself down on the sofa in the family’s front room.

Gaia was the daughter of Lord Michael Young who died, aged 86, when she was just five. 

She is the half-sister of writer and journalist Mr Young because Lord Young was also his father. 

Her mother Dorit said: ‘Suddenly she removes herself from the table. We didn’t even notice it at first.

‘Then she rings through the landline to say ‘Mum I have a very bad headache, I’m in the front room’

Gaia Young, 25, was the daughter of Labour Lord Michael Young, who died when she was five

‘Gaia herself thought she had a heatstroke. But an hour later she was viciously vomiting and by 9.30pm the ambulance came, I sat in there with her,’ she added to the Evening Standard.

An ambulance took her to University College London Hospital but less than a day later she was declared brain dead. 

Her death is currently being treated as unexplained because the first post-mortem carried out on her came back inconclusive.

A UCLH spokesperson said: ‘Our deepest sympathies go to Gaia’s loved ones at this very sad and difficult time. We are in contact with her family and reviewing the circumstances leading to her death.’

Bristol history graduate Gaia was researching her family tree for a book about her father.

Lord Young wrote the Labour Party’s ‘Let Us Face the Future’ manifesto back in 1945. 

She had said she had felt ill on July 21 and believed she had heatstroke before hospital dash

Mrs Young added: ‘It was important to her because we were our own unit standing slightly to the side of the family.

‘Her half-siblings are much older than her and I had a big age gap between me and Michael.

‘She wanted so desperately to be part of the family and she was an amazing historian. We were a formidable team.

‘The moment Gaia saw someone in need she would move into action. That is exactly something her dad used to do’, Ms Young said.

‘She was following in his footsteps. There is no end to what she could have achieved.

‘I miss her inspiration, her way of doing things so differently to me, I miss her telling me off.

‘I miss seeing her every morning coming down the stairs in a fantastic new outfit.’