Heartbroken mum-to-be says she will name newborn after boyfriend who tragically died

A heartbroken pregnant woman will name her baby after her boyfriend who sadly died. 

Leah Hayes, 24, will honour the father of her child, Jamie Harper, 34, who tragically collapsed and died during a charity football match.

"I'm so depressed. This was the happiest I'd ever been, and it's all been taken away so quickly," the expectant mother said.

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Jamie suffered a heart attack and was pronounced dead on Sunday, 11 September, a little before 1.41pm at Leeds General Infirmary.

Just two weeks earlier, Jamie, a chef at Wetherspoons, had excitedly announced the news that he and Leah were expecting a baby.

Grief-stricken, Leah recalled how 'excited' Jamie was to become a dad for the first time.

He was also planning to adopt Leah's daughter: "He'd just moved in that Thursday, he'd moved all his stuff into my house.

"He was going to adopt my daughter, she'd started calling him dad.

"She's never had a dad so having Jamie in our lives for the last year had been great.

"He was so excited to be a dad, it's all he'd ever wanted was to have children and have a family."

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Unfortunately, before Jamie could adopt Leah's daughter and meet their new baby, he collapsed.

Leah had spoken to him just hours before: "I'd spoken to him about 11 o'clock that day. I'm diabetic, and my blood sugar levels were low.

"His last words to me were: 'make sure you have something to eat for the baby – it's going to be a strong rugby player one day'.

"I told him to have a good day and message me when he could."

Leah found out what had happened to Jamie from her mum, after tributes began pouring in for him on social media.

The whole thing came as an awful shock as Jamie seemed to have no health issues: "Other than sore feet from working on them all day, Jamie never complained of any health issue. He never said anything about his heart," Leah said.

"He was quite fit and healthy, he did the charity football game every year since he'd worked there."

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His father and uncle had previously suffered heart attacks but fortunately survived. 

Leah is now 14 weeks pregnant and grieving the massive loss: "He was the first loving man I'd ever met. He would always go out of his way to help people, no matter what."

And, in honour of Jamie, she's decided what she's calling her baby: "We were talking about baby names, but I've decided I'm going to name the baby after him and call it Jamie. It's the only choice now."