AUSTIN, Texas —
A grieving Texas mother who lost her daughter to fentanyl is working to raise awareness about the dangers of the drug.
Her daughter's best friend is also doing what she can to raise awareness. The University of Texas at Austin freshman joined a student organization to help save others after her friend's passing.
Both Nancy Fowler and Ciera Fontenot say before Kate Fowler's death, they didn't know how dangerous fentanyl was or how easy it is to get. But they also know that regardless of any warnings, people are still going to do drugs. So, they want to make sure people know about resources to keep them alive if they unintentionally get a deadly dose.
"It's something that, it's unnatural to lose a child. It's unnatural," Nancy Fowler said.
This past Christmas Eve, the Fowler family changed forever.
"She has a huge personality, and she was brilliant and funny and hilarious and driven," Nancy Fowler said about her daughter, Kate. "But she also struggled with anxiety and depression. So it was a balance that she had, that she was trying to maintain, really her whole life."
On Dec. 24, 2022, Nancy Fowler walked into her daughter's room and noticed she was slumped over on her bed.
"I said her name, and she didn't respond. And I went over to her, and her body was already a little stiff. And her face was contorted and twisted, and she was purple," Nancy Fowler said.
The 18-year-old college freshman was home on winter break.
"When the police were there ... I told them the position that I found her in and the officer immediately said, 'The only thing that can do that is fentanyl. It's the only thing,'" Nancy Fowler said. "When I heard that, I just collapsed on the floor and just wailed. Like a sound that I've never heard come out of me before."
Nancy Fowler said her daughter suffered from severe nightmares, and she thinks she took something to help her sleep. According to toxicology reports, Kate Fowler had a counterfeit pain medication laced with fentanyl in her system.
Police pronounced her dead on arrival.
After going through her daughter's phone, Nancy Fowler thinks Kate Fowler got the drugs from someone on Snapchat.
"I did everything that I could as a mom to keep our kids safe. Everything I knew to do. But never in a million years [could I have imagined]," Fowler said. "I didn't know drugs could be part of social media, and I did not know that fentanyl was in the majority of those drugs."
Now, she wants to share her story to warn others of these dangers.
"I think that's our way of sharing the love that we have for our kid and still being able to have that love and protect others because that's what we do as parents. We love and protect," Nancy Fowler said.
It's a message Kate Fowler's best friend, Ciera Fontenot, supports and shares.
"As a mom, she knows how difficult it is to lose a child, and she doesn't want that to happen to any other parent. No parent should have to go through that, and no best friend should have to go through it either," Fontenot said.
Fontenot joined the Longhorn EMS organization on UT's campus and serves on its Harm Reduction Committee, which helps spread awareness about fentanyl and the ways to treat an overdose.
"There's nothing I can do to bring her back, but what I can do is spread awareness so that this doesn't happen to someone else," Fontenot said.
The group gives presentations to different organizations on campus to help students feel comfortable taking action if they encounter someone who took fentanyl.
"We really emphasize bystander intervention, which we believe is really important because we believe is that college students want to help their friends if they in an unsafe situation," Director of Harm Reduction Sachi Kulkarni said.
The group also hands out the opioid overdose reversal medication Narcan and makes sure people know how to use it.
"So, they have the Narcan in their hands, they have the knowledge on how to use it, when to use it, and now they can just help out whenever they can," Longhorn EMS Captain/Vice President Annette Velasco said.
While some may think giving out Narcan encourages drug use, Nancy Fowler said it's better to have it and be able to save a life – just in case.
"People think, 'Well, my kid would never do that. My kid would never take an opioid that they bought online,'" Nancy Fowler said. "And now I tell them, 'I didn't think my kid would either.'"
She also believes if someone has Narcan and knows how to use it, they could keep a family from changing like hers did.
Nancy Fowler wrote a letter for Senate Bill 86, to get fentanyl test strips approved in Texas. However, that bill never made it out of the Criminal Justice Committee.