Katrina Jacks (c. 1986 in Monmouth, Wales – 16 May 2010 in Lake Titicaca, Peru), was a Welsh rower and chemical engineering graduate.
Jacks was born in Monmouth, the second child and first daughter to General Practitioners Alasdair and Susanna. She had an older brother and a younger sister.
Jacks went to Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls and attended Imperial College, London, graduating with a first class degree in chemical engineering.[1]
Jacks won a number of gold medals at the National Schools Championships, and represented Great Britain at under-16 level for two consecutive years. She was part of the Welsh eight at the 2006 Commonwealth Rowing Championships at Strathclyde Park in Motherwell, Scotland, winning silver with the Welsh team.[2]
Due to start a job with an engineering consultancy company in summer 2010, Jacks took a gap year in South America from 2009 to improve her Spanish. First volunteering at an orphanage in Ecuador,[3] she then trekked along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, before travelling to Lake Titicaca in Peru, the world's highest navigable lake at a height of 3827m (12,556feet). Jacks died of an apparent case of altitude sickness, which affects human beings above 2400m (7,900feet),[4] on 16 May 2010. Her body was returned to Wales for burial in late May 2010.[5]