Politicians have met to find ways to offer more support to the community left devastated by the death of a young Melbourne woman. 19-year-old Bianca Jones is one of five people who died following a mass methanol poisoning in Laos. Her friend, Holly Bowles, is still on life support in a Thai hospital.
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00:00The community here in Melbourne's south-east in Beaumaris is entirely shell-shocked after
00:06the passing of 19-year-old Bianca Jones.
00:10Her family made the excruciating decision yesterday to turn off her life support at
00:14a hospital in Thailand.
00:16Thai authorities have since confirmed that there was a high concentration of methanol
00:19found in her bloodstream.
00:21She was the fourth person to have died from this suspected methanol poisoning.
00:25Since then, a fifth person has passed away.
00:27She was a 28-year-old UK national.
00:31Meanwhile, Bianca's friend Holly, who was travelling with her at the time, remains in
00:35a separate hospital on life support with her family, also by her bad side.
00:39And of course, this has absolutely rattled the community back home.
00:42Here at the Beaumaris Football Club, they are rallying behind the girls, families and
00:46the broader community.
00:48They're flying the 2022 Premiership that both Holly and Bianca played in and successfully
00:52won at half-mast today.
00:54There's also the first flowers being laid and balloons to pay tribute to Bianca and
00:58all hopes are with Holly at the moment.
01:01Today was meant to be the club's season launch and instead they will gather tonight, the
01:05club and the players, but they'll be gathering for a very different reason, to reflect and
01:11to mourn the loss of Bianca.
01:14Rather than us all dealing with this in isolation, we're dealing with it as a collective and
01:20that's been very powerful for us as a footy club and as a community.
01:26The Football Club President Nick Heath says they'll be launching a fundraiser to help
01:29pay for funds to bring Bianca's body back home.
01:32But as we can see, signs that the community are really banding together and supporting
01:36each other at this extremely tough time.