Black Mirror star sues Sports Direct gym after her mother dies from overheating in sauna
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, a former model who died from heatstroke after using the sauna at an Everlast gym in Cheltenham in August 2022.
A coroner's inquest in September 2023 found that 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 over her mum's death.
Actress Milanka Brooks, 41, found fame starring in a number of TV sitcoms after being cast in multi award-winning BBC1 sitcom My Family in 2000 after 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 BBC2 comedy, 'Boomers'.
She then found success in a high-profile role 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 mum Mileva, to whom the actress was very close, calling her her "best friend in the world," collapsed and died after using the sauna at the Everlast gym, in Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, on August 26, 2022.
Mileva Brooks, who lived at Lypiatt Terrace, Cheltenham, had joined the gym six months earlier.
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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 London's High Court, Ms Brooks is now suing the gym's owners, claiming "damages in excess of £50,000, but limited to £100,000" in her role as administratix of her mum's estate for "personal injury and consequential losses" and under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976.
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In online posts, the actress has spoken repeatedly of her and her mum'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 was not available from the court at the time of writing.
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