Toby Bryson died in his sleep at the home he shared with his 24-year-old girlfriend Alisha Brownlee in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, leaving his loved ones devastated
A heartbroken mum today told of the moment she awoke to find her partner lying dead beside her.
Alisha Brownlee knew she had found the love of her life when she met Toby Bryson six years ago. After a whirlwind romance, the new couple moved in together and Toby became a father figure to Alisha’s young son Kai.
But their happiness was shattered last week when Toby died in his sleep after drifting off next to his partner on the sofa at the home they shared, in Deckham, Gateshead. He was just 30 years old.
Alisha, 24, is still struggling to come to terms with her shock and the fact that her soulmate is gone. And today as she pays tribute to Toby, the 24-year-old has relived the horrifying moment she realised her boyfriend was dead.
Alisha said: “I woke up and he was dead lying next to me. I’m just absolutely broken to bits. I genuinely don’t know what to do. It’s scary to think I now have to do life without him. I would have stayed with him for the rest of my life but that got cut short.”
Alisha and Toby met after they began chatting online almost seven years ago and hit it off immediately.
“I met him six and a half years ago. He had messaged me and then we just met up and we stayed together since then,” Alisha said. “He had such a funny personality, we bounced off each other.”
After the couple got together Toby began to get to know Kai, and quickly took on the role of his dad.
“We made a home together,” said Alisha. “He brought Kai up as his own from being one-year-old. Kai called him dad, he was really amazing with him.”
Alisha said Toby had been in and out of trouble with the police and spent some time in prison in the years before he died. So despite being a qualified electrician, he struggled to find a permanent job due to his criminal record. But Toby would always work when he could, she said.
“He was a qualified electrician, but he never had an electrician’s job for a while because he was in and out of prison so it was hard for him to get a job,” Alisha explained. “He was very mischievous let’s just say. He used to work with his dad doing gardening and landscaping. He was always busy.
“He was just a big bundle of laughs, he was so funny. He lived life to the max, he never did things in halves.”
Toby had been out for a few drinks on the day before he was found dead. Alisha said she and her partner had then fallen asleep together on the sofa. But when she woke up early on the morning of Monday, April 15, Alisha realised something was very wrong immediately
“He had been out for a few drinks on the Sunday, he come home and we had dinner on a Sunday night then we fell asleep. Everything was normal,” she said. “Then I woke up at 6.15am and felt how cold he was. I turned round and he wasn’t breathing. I just screamed. I tried to wake him up and he didn’t wake up. I didn’t want to believe it.”
Alisha dialled 999 and when paramedics arrived they tried to resuscitate Toby, but nothing could be done to save him. “The paramedics worked on him for about 30 minutes but there was nothing,” Alisha added.
How Toby came to die is still unknown and a post-mortem has been carried out. But police have confirmed his death is not being treated as suspicious, Chronicle Live says.
A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “Shortly after 6.45am on Monday, April 15, we received a report from the ambulance service that a 30-year-old male had sadly been found deceased at an address on Thames Street in Gateshead. There is not believed to be any third party involvement in the man’s death and a report was prepared for the coroner.”
Still in shock herself Alisha has had to face the heartbreaking task of telling Kai that Toby is gone.
“I have just told Kai that he has gone to heaven. He was heartbroken,” she said. “He always speaks about him. He just doesn’t understand why his dad got taken away. He’s really sad but I’m just trying to stay strong for him.”
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