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A TV comedy actress is suing a gym chain owned by fitness giants Sports Direct for up to £100,000 after her model mum overheated in a sauna and died.
Milanka Brooks, who starred in TV sitcoms 'Benidorm', 'The Windsors' and 'My Family,' as well as satire 'Black Mirror', is seeking damages over the death of her 75-year-old mum Mileva Brooks in August 2022.
The former model died from heatstroke after using the sauna at an Everlast gym in Cheltenham.
A coroner's inquest in September 2023 found the pensioner died three days after being rushed to hospital when other gym users alerted staff that she had collapsed in the sauna and was experiencing breathing difficulties.
Now the actress is suing the owner of the Everlast gym chain, SportsDirect.com Fitness Ltd, at London's High Court, seeking up to £100,000 in compensation.
Ms Brooks, 41, found fame starring in a number of TV sitcoms after being cast in multi award-winning BBC One sitcom My Family in 2000, having graduating from drama school.
She had a regular role in ITV's 'Benidorm', playing Johnny Vegas' fiancée, Ionela, played Princess Svetlana in Channel 4’s British Royal Family parody ‘The Windsors,’ and Nigel Planer's wife Elena, in 2014 BBC Two comedy, 'Boomers'.
She then appeared as a blue-faced alien crew member, Elena Tulaska, in the multi-Emmy Award winning Black Mirror episode, USS Callister, in 2017.
But tragedy struck after her mother Mileva, who the actress describes as her "best friend in the world”, collapsed and died at the gym in Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, on August 26, 2022.
Roland Wooderson, assistant coroner for Gloucestershire, recorded a narrative verdict after an inquest in 2023, saying that the former model had "died from the effects of heatstroke” after being "found unresponsive in the sauna of the gym".
He had earlier heard medical evidence that Mileva's body temperature was 39.2 degrees centigrade when it was measured by paramedics who attended the scene.
According to legal documents filed at the High Court, Ms Brooks is suing on behalf of her mother’s estate for "personal injury and consequential losses" and under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976.
In online posts, the actress has spoken repeatedly of her and her mother’s close relationship calling her "the light and inspiration of my life," her "partner in crime" and "best friend in the world".
In 2020, Frasers Group, the Sports Direct parent company, bought a number of DW Sports Fitness locations out of administration and started the Everlast Gyms chain.
By late 2023, they had nearly 60 branches located across all four countries of the United Kingdom.
The defence of SportsDirect.Com Fitness Ltd is not yet available.
