THE mum of snowboarder Ellie Soutter has revealed the heartbreaking moment she found out her daughter had taken her own life.

The rising Team GB star killed herself on her 18th birthday in July last year in remote woodland in Les Gets, France as she struggled to deal with stress and depression.

She had been tipped to represent her country at the 2022 Winter Olympics before her death in July, having won a bronze medal at the European Youth Olympics in 2017.

Her mother Lorraine, who lives in Hove, has spoken of the devastating phone call she received from Ellie’s father Tony to say her body had been found after the teen had gone missing.

Alarm bells were raised after family and friends had failed to reach the snowboarder on her milestone birthday, leading to French police searching nearby mountains.

Speaking to the BBC, veterinary nurse Lorraine said: “I just said to him ‘have you seen Ellie? Have you heard from her?’, and he said ‘we’ve found her’.

“For a split second, I thought she was alive. And then he said: ‘she’s dead’. He said: ‘Lorraine, she’s dead’.

“I got out of bed and I just fell to the floor. Someone might as well have just taken my heart out.”

Lorraine said she and her husband walked the streets near her home in Hove for five hours, but she has no memory of where they went or what they spoke about.

Fifteen months after her death, Lorraine has revealed that she now sports a tattoo of Ellie’s favourite photograph of herself on her arm.

The image, which Lorraine says helps her to feel closer to her daughter, shows Ellie with her arms aloft in a French lake, and represents her “happiness” and “freedom”.

Ellie lived in the French Alps with her father, and was due to represent Team GB at the Junior Snowboard World Championships in New Zealand.

Her family believe that the pressure of funding her sporting goals “weighed heavily” on Ellie’s shoulders.

In the days before her death, Ellie missed a flight to a training camp and felt as though she had “let everybody down”.

Lorraine explained that she last spoke to Ellie the day before she killed herself, and that Ellie had revealed her anguish at missing the flight.

More than 400 people attended her funeral, where Ellie’s simple wooden coffin was carried up the 15 granite steps of the church in Les Gets to Handel’s Largo.

Afterwards, her ashes were scattered on Mont Chéry, her favourite mountain where she regularly trained.

Her father Tony Soutter also said that daughter’s state of mind may have been affected by several head injuries and concussions she suffered in her career.

He added that the teenager suffered a serious concussion while snowboarding three months before her death.

To contact the Samaritans, call 116 123.