A teenager who fell from a motorway bridge 15 years after her mum jumped from a flat while cuddling her was talked off the bridge a week before, her devastated grandfather said.

Yazmina Howard, 18, was talked down from the bridge over the M20 just days before she jumped from the same spot on Monday night.

Her grandfather, Michael Howard, 70, said the system “really let her down” as he revealed she was checked into the Priority House in Maidstone Hospital, but the family were given little help.

College student Yazmina miraculously survived when her mum jumped more than 100ft to her death while clutching the-then three-year-old.

She had feared her abusive ex-partner, Ivan Delgardo, planned to kidnap Yazmina and flee to his native Spain.

Speaking at the family home, a converted farm in rural East Farleigh, Mr Howard said: “Before this happened Yazmina had a similar event just over a week before on the same bridge.

He said he believes Yazmina was talked down by her boyfriend, adding: “Apparently he managed to get there and pulled her back.

“Police were called and she ended up in Priority House at Maidstone.

“We didn’t know anything about it until we got the phone call saying it happened, ‘can you come and collect her?’

“They said, ‘we have put Yazmina under a crisis team’.

“We expected someone to give us a call and say, ‘come here and we can give you some guidance in some way’.

“What I can’t understand is, they take them into this Priority, how do they evaluate someone to say that they can go?

“It seems the system has really let her down.”

Yazmina went out for pizza with a friend on the night she died, before sending “happy” pictures to her grandparents, who took on her care when her mum died.

Yazmina split time between her grandparent’s home and an apartment close to Mid Kent College, where she studied.

Mr Howard said they learned she had died in the early hours of Tuesday.

He said: "The police came here at about two in the morning but apparently all this happened at about 10ish."

Talking about the death of her mum in August 2003, he added: “Yazmina survived that incident.

“She had horrific injuries from that fall but we got through all of them.

"I don’t think she was left with any kind of problems.

"She had broken arms, jaw, ribs, we went to various hospitals.

“How she was in her thoughts we didn’t know. No one knows. She must have been depressed to some degree.

“She was a happy girl, very quiet, never any problems, she was not one of those that went out clubbing which some teenagers do. She was very quiet and very strong.”

He told how Yazmina had considered re-enrolling at college, which had caused her some stress.

Mr Howard said: “They said she could come back to the college but she had got to start from day one, which she was not too happy with.”

Family members gathered at their home yesterday following news of Yazmina’s death.

Mr Howard added: “It’s devastated all of them. She was very private, she didn’t get involved a great deal with the rest of the family - they all loved Yazmina for what she was.

“She’s extremely special to us, surviving all that time.

“We adopted her as our own. That had to go through the adoption process, it’s more or less a year’s process, as though you're adopting a stranger, even though she was our granddaughter.”

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