A top student who championed openness about mental illness and the eating disorder anorexia has died after falling ill in student halls.
St Andrews University third-year student Pandora Reynolds, known as “Patch”, died in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, on Monday.
Miss Reynolds, 21, from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, was taken to the hospital after becoming unwell in her room at St Salvator’s Hall.
Her death comes just a fortnight after another St Andrews student, Kelsey Clarke, 18, from Dollar in Clackmannanshire, was discovered dead in her room at the university’s Agnes Blackadder Hall.
In an email to students and staff, St Andrews University principal Professor Louise Richardson said: “With deepest sadness I have to write to you again to tell you of the tragic death of one of our students.”
She said Miss Reynolds was “bright and exceptionally able”, adding: “Patch was a big presence on campus where she was well known for being friendly, outgoing and talkative. She had a wide range of interests and friends.
“She was a committed advocate of openness on mental health issues, she supported BEAT, the eating disorder charity, at whose conferences she spoke, and she recently helped to organise a sexual consent workshop.”
Miss Reynolds grew up in Market Harborough and attended Bishop Stopford School in Kettering. She won a place at St Andrews in 2013 to study computer science.
Professor Richardson said: “As is so often the case, university stimulated new interests and possibilities, and the following year she switched to film studies, a subject she loved.
“Her tutors in both schools came to know a fine student who was engaged, vivacious, committed, and immersed in her studies.
“I know that she will be missed terribly by her friends, tutors and fellow residents in Sallies, and that her loss has come as a ghastly shock to our community. But our sadness must pale in comparison to the grief of Patch’s parents, Anne and Mark, and her older brother, Angus.”
In her last post on Facebook, on Friday, Miss Reynolds thanked friends for “kidnapping me and taking me to get sorbet”. She added: “The best friends don’t request, they demand.”