‘I always knew he would die young’ says heartbroken dad of former Brighton student

The heartbroken dad of a “unique” 23-year-old who overdosed on a cocktail of drugs after a birthday night out says he always knew he would die young.

Aaron Oldale has paid a touching tribute to Chase Oldale-Worth, offering a candid account of the struggles of supporting his son as he faced the demons of addiction.

Chase died in hospital four days after being found unresponsive by his partner at their home on the morning of July 9 this year.

“I kind of always knew he would never make old bones but I didn’t think he would die at 23; we all thought there was more time,” said a tearful Mr Oldale.

“We actually had a conversation in the days before he died and he asked me ‘what’s it like to have a son who’s a junkie?’, and I instinctively wanted to say don’t call yourself that, but I didn’t.

“Instead I said ‘it’s horrible Chase, because I know you’re going to die’.

“He immediately said ‘oh no, that won’t happen’, and I just wondered to myself whether or not he knew that he was taking those chances.”

The night before Chase was found, he had taken cocaine, liquid morphine and a potent anti-anxiety drug called Xanax during his 23rd birthday celebrations.

The combination of the substances caused a sudden cardiac arrest that starved Chase’s brain of oxygen, causing his death.

At an inquest on October 9, a coroner concluded he had died by misadventure.

Mr Oldale says losing Chase has been devastating for his family, including his brother Spike and sister Ollie.

“We loved him to death – he was a unique child whose personality seemed set from day one,” he said.

“When he was young, I recall pouring him some juice and asking him how much he wanted, to which he replied ‘too much’. At the time I laughed but I guess that it was prophetic; Chase often wanted too much.

“He never seemed to have a sense of danger, which as a parent was terrifying. I could recount numerous tales where Chase nearly fell to his death, flung himself into a raging sea or turned blue choking after eating a railway ticket.”

Born in Brighton in 2000, Chase moved with his parents and two younger siblings to Ramsgate in 2006.

As a teenager, he fell in love with the guitar and studied music at college in Broadstairs before dropping out and moving back to Brighton, where he lived with his mum.

Mr Oldale said: “Stuck for something to do he enrolled at college in Brighton and lived with my mum and Jim where he was in guitar heaven.

“She got him a job behind the bar at The Con Club in Lewes, which he enjoyed, but I’ve since been told he mostly chatted with customers in-between his cigarette breaks and not a lot of work went on.

“He hated anything he considered ‘woke bull***t’”.

“This didn’t hold him in good stead when he went to university in Brighton during lockdown.

“The brown rice and muesli-eating electorate that voted for the only Green MP in the country weren’t ready for Chase, and he wasn’t going to change for them.

“So he dropped out after the first year to bum around Ramsgate hobo-style.

“I’m sure that some of his friends probably weren’t aware that he had a loving family – although we were running out of ideas by then.

“He openly admitted that he just wanted to take lots of drugs, which he did. I found the next couple of years quite hard as Chase never seemed to be sober, although he often popped over on his electric bike to watch a film and order pizza.

“He always found the best takeaways with the best deals; he had a real talent for it.”

The coroner’s court at County Hall in Maidstone heard that in his adult years Chase had suffered from longstanding battles with addiction and self-harm, and last Christmas spent time in hospital following an overdose.

“He was in ICU after taking too many drugs” Mr Oldale said.

“He got away with it and I thought he had had a wake-up call. He promised that he had.”

Despite his previous struggles, Chase was said to have been in a much more positive place after moving in with his boyfriend, Alec Wesdijk-Ewe in King Street, Ramsgate.

“Chase found someone who loved him for who he was,” Mr Oldale added.

“Alec is a really fun character and it was clear to see how much he loved Chase for his unique personality.

“I could feel how happy he was and for the first time in my life I started to stop worrying about him.

“Alec was working to bring him off the drugs, and good things lay ahead.

“He had found true love and his place in the world. I find comfort in that now – in that sense, he led a full life.”

Speaking to KentOnline, Mr Wesdijk-Ewe said he “loved everything about” Chase.

“We had not been going out long but had been courting for well over a year; there was a real awakening of true love,” he said.

“Chase was always a massive contradiction – one truly unique individual who would go against the grain just because he could, and it was funny to him.

“We were so different but drawn to each other’s company. He was everything to me, everything I needed to carry on with my life.”

Mr Oldale says Chase was “clearly on the autistic spectrum”, but efforts to have him diagnosed and seek appropriate mental health support were not successful.

“Challenging is the word I would use – he could be challenging both as a child and when he was older,” Mr Oldale said.

“He always wanted the world to change to suit him and he would never bend himself to suit how things actually are, even though it made his life so much harder. His likeable personality seemed to allow it somehow.

“Nowadays autism and being neurodivergent is talked about so much more; if he was a little lad he would almost certainly get put into some of those categories. All he wanted was ultimate freedom.”

Mr Oldale says the world is now “far lonelier” for those who knew and loved his son.

“I simply can’t comprehend that part of my life, loving and worrying about Chase, being over,” he said.

“I don’t know what to think of next.”

Reproduced with thanks from Kent Online/Kent Messenger