A teenager who took an overdose of painkillers when her boyfriend ended their relationship did not realize the pills would kill her.

Kimberley Wilcox swallowed 24 paracetamol and 24 ibuprofen tablets in a "cry for help" - but died in agony 11 days later from organ failure and brain damage.

After taking the pills, which had no immediate effect, the 16-year-old texted her ex-boyfriend to tell him what she had done. She later met up with friends and admitted she had attempted an overdose to "scare" him.

But when she returned home, she collapsed in pain.

Now, Kimberly's mum, Cindy, from Narborough, has begged other teenagers to be aware of the dangers of paracetamol.

"Kimberley had no idea what she was doing," said Cindy, 43.

"Youngsters need to know the dangers of taking too much paracetamol.

"We miss Kimberley so much."

An inquest at Leicester Town Hall heard how Kimberley, a hairdressing student at Leicester College, and her former boyfriend first met at primary school in Lutterworth.

They had been going out for 11 months when he ended it just before Christmas 2008.

In a statement read out in court, her 19-year-old ex-boyfriend, now a law student, said Kimberley was "really upset and started crying". He added: "Later that day she texted me and said she'd taken a paracetamol overdose."

It was one of a string of text messages the upset girl sent to her ex after she took the pills on January 23 last year.

One read: "I can't handle being away from you. I'm going to die." He called her mother who confronted Kimberley, but she convinced her that she had not taken the tablets.

Later that evening, Kimberley met a 16-year-old friend who lived nearby, and told her she had taken "quite a few" tablets.

When the friend asked if she wanted an ambulance, she said Kimberly refused because her mum would be angry.

Kimberley admitted taking the pills when her mum collected her and took her home, where she collapsed in agony.

She was rushed to Leicester's General Hospital. Within days she was put on the urgent transplant list for a new liver and transferred to a specialist unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham.

Dr Andrew Holt, consultant physician, said: "A transplant was her only real chance of survival. We put her on an emergency transplant list but no suitable donor became available."

Kimberley never fully regained consciousness and died on February 3. A postmortem examination revealed her liver and kidneys were destroyed. They also found severe brain damage.

Coroner Donald Coutts-Wood recorded a verdict of misadventure.

He said: "I have no doubt that Kimberley did the physical act of taking the tablets. At the time she did take them she did not have the intention of ending her life. It was a cry for help."