Mum’s plea after daughter, 13, died copying social media trend

The mother of a girl who died while copying a “horrible” social media trend is calling for children to be made aware of the dangers of solvent abuse.

Sonia Hopkin was left heartbroken after the death of her 13-year-old daughter Tiegan Jarman, who was found unconscious in her bedroom in Thurmaston, Leicestershire, on March 6.

She died while participating in an online trend called chroming, copying videos she had seen on TikTok, Ms. Hopkin said.

A petition has been launched calling for compulsory lessons on solvent abuse to be introduced into schools.

Ms Hopkin, who lives in Leicester, said Tiegan was pronounced dead at the scene after being found unconscious at her father’s home.

The 45-year-old believes her “outgoing and funny” daughter was part of a trend of people sniffing or inhaling toxic fumes, which she had seen on TikTok.

Ms Hopkin, a healthcare assistant at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said she broke down in tears when she found out what had happened to her daughter.

“When you hear other stories in the newspaper, you always think it’s someone else’s family, never yours,” she said.

“It’s just the worst nightmare. I was heartbroken and I’ve been like that ever since.”

Ms Hopkin now wants to raise awareness of the “dangers of this horrible trend”.

In addition to asking for lessons on solvent abuse, the petition also calls for regulations requiring manufacturers to add warnings to their packaging to be enforced.

Ms Hopkin said: “We hope to be able to teach in schools, not only the dangers of household chemicals, but also the dangers of the internet.

“We just want people to be aware so no one else has to experience this horrible tragedy.”

Ms Hopkin also called on TikTok to do more to prevent actions, such as chroming, from becoming trends.

“It’s amazing that these videos aren’t taken down,” she said. “I don’t understand why anyone would want to share this kind of crap.

“Just one video would be bad, but the fact that it became a trend is incredible. It shouldn’t be available on the internet.”

The British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association said products must already carry multiple warnings on packaging, but added that a new message using “better language” to explain risks would be introduced in 2026.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family.

“Content promoting dangerous challenges is not allowed on TikTok, and we proactively removed 99.8% of videos that violated our policies on this issue before they were reported to us.

“Search for this particular challenge is blocked and we have found no evidence that this is a trend on our platform.”