British teenager dies in reported motorbike fall in Vietnam

A "beautiful, independent and very funny" British teenager has died in a road accident in Vietnam. Local media reported 19-year-old Orla Wates, from London, was travelling the Ha Giang Loop in northern Vietnam when she fell from the back of a motorcycle. She was in South East Asia on a gap year before starting a degree at Durham University. Viet Nam News said she was taken to Hanoi's Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, and she died on 2 April, with her parents at her bedside. Her parents said: "Orla had a sharp wit and lived life to the full." Orla had three siblings and was the daughter of Andrew Wates, the director of the multi-billion pound family-owned construction firm the Wates Group. Her mother Henrietta Wates said the family had chosen to donate her organs to the hospital to help others: "We believe that if there were a way to give opportunity to others, this is what Orla would have wanted. "Knowing that she is living on through them brings us great comfort." Viet Nam News reported that organ donations had been made to "five critically ill Vietnamese patients" at the hospital. A hospital representative said: "In the face of profound grief, her family made a deeply compassionate d