Anna Wood’s father ‘in despair’ as another teenager dies

FOR almost two decades Tony Wood has lived with the pain of losing his daughter Anna to drugs.

Portrait of NSW schoolgirl Anna Wood ecstasy drug death victim. rave party p/

FOR almost two decades Tony Wood has lived with the pain of losing his daughter Anna to drugs.

It is a pain that he describes as a “debilitating disease”.

Not a day has passed that he has not thought about Anna or what she would be doing with her life.

“It’s like putting your heart in a vice and having it squeezed to the extent that you can’t breathe,” Mr Wood said.

“Grief is a debilitating disease. It’s 19 years since we lost Anna and it’s hardly abated.

“It’s every day you wonder what she would be doing if she was still alive.”

Mr Wood said he watched on with sadness yesterday as news emerged about the death of Georgina Bartter in an apparent drug overdose.

He has long campaigned for greater awareness about ecstasy after his daughter, who was 15 at the time, died from acute water intoxication after taking ecstasy at a dance party in 1995.

Wood and a group of schoolfriends had attended a rave dance party at the Phoenician Club on Broadway in Ultimo, in inner Sydney

“It’s just dreadful that young people are still taking these tablets,” he said. “We’re in despair for the parents. It’s a tragedy and we know what they are going through.

“It is preventable. It happens every year at these stupid dance parties; they’re just a honey pot for drug dealers.”