Did you ever know somebody who died young?

In response to the OP.
Quite a few.
When I was in primary school a kid I knew fell in the yard of his school and punctured a lung and died on the way to hospital that was fairly mental, just fell in the yard and was a bit hurt, seemed grand and then got really bad.

When I was in 2nd or 3rd class a lad in my school died. Hung himself from the banister in his house, his auld lad walked in the door from work to find the young lad hanging there dead. Horrible thing to happen. People have said stuff like he was messing around and it went wrong, and it makes sense in a lot of way as he was a smart, happy young lad from a good family, was good a sports, good at school and had tons of friends, but I guess nobody will ever know the truth.

Few years after that a neighbour died of leukemia, she was only about 8, lovely little girl, used to play with my little sister until she got sick, they she wasn away in hospital for treatment most of the time, she'd still play with my sister when she was home, but she'd be knackered after a few minutes and would need to go lay down, other times she didn't have the energy to play at all so she'd just sit on the lawn watching.

Them when I was in 5th year (I think) a friend died. He'd been fighting cancer for a long time, tumours all over the place. It's weird though, because he was, apparently, closer to beating it than he'd been in years and then, bam, everything falls apart and within a few weeks he went from out and about to being on life support. A few years previous he'd been in hospital and needed to have a joint replacement done, tumors had been removed from the joint and it was useless so they fitted him for a titanium joint and it was being shipped from France, the joint almost didn't make it on time, there were lorry driver strikes at the ports in France and it was delayed for something like 12 hours. If it had been an hour longer they would have had to amputate his leg totally. He was one of the most universally like people I've yet to meet. Hadn't thought of him for ages until just now...

Then about a year after I finished secondary school a lad who'd been in my year from 1st to 6th died of leukemia. Was a total shock, diagnosed out of the blue and died not long after. We weren't exactly friends but he was a nice lad and it's a shame when someone that young dies.

Then about 2ish years ago someone told me a lad who'd been in our year killed himself.
He was the year idiot, and he probably deserved the tag, he'd do anything for attention of approval. He'd routinely pick fights with about 4 lads in our year a few times a term and get his head kicked in every single time, but refuse to stay down, he'd keep getting up and coming at you until he couldn't any more. I remember the last time he did it to me I couldn't handle it, threw a freaker and smacked him a few times in the face, hoping he'd stay down, but he started getting up so I lifted him off the ground with a kick in the stomach, stayed down after that, but I felt like a bollocks for letting him bait me, he was obviously not well, even back then, mentally. I wasn't surprised when I was told he'd killed himself. Obviously whatever it was that made him act the way he did got the better of him in the end. Which is sad, because he wasn't actually stupid, he just liked to make everyone think he was...

On the other side of the coin.
I have 3 friends, and myself, who have been through the wars health wise.
I am actually one of 3 people I know, who have had strokes ages 25 or under.

I was 25, about 10 days after my 25th birthday. Wasn't fun but I was lucky to have no major long term damage. Was in warfarin for a year, such a pain in the arse, but off it since september, only have to take 75mg of asprin daily now, which is grand. almost back to normal, have remastered all the fiddly fine motorskills stuff, that was the hardest part, but can use chop sticks and sign my name and all that good stuff grand again now. Take another step that way this Wednesday when I get my hearing aid, finally, after 18 months of waiting (good ole HSE)!

Another lad was 21, in college, playing basketball, fit as a fiddle and had a massive stroke, he hard to re-learn how to walk, write, grip stuff, he has had to have an internal cardiac defibrillator and pacemaker attached to his heart, has to take warfarin every day for the rest of his life, but you'd never hear the lad complain about it. Still involved with basketball and rugby as a coach and back in college finishing his degree.

The other stroke victim was 16, in 5th year of school (he's 24 now) and he had a long recovery but is back to 100% now. He was in hospital and rehab for the guts of a year, couldn't talk for a long time, had to relearn how to walk, write, everything. But he's grand now, plays football, is a fantastic drummer (which is amazing, when you consider it) and in college studying science.

The 4th lad is a cancer survivor, had several tumours removed from his legs, around his hip and knees, has a few bits of plastics and metals in there holding him together, had a long chemo treatment but been fit and well for about 3 years now. Mad into cycling, racers every week or two, does a few hundred miles a week on his bike and has a degree to his name.