Apr 14 2025
For two busy days in November last year, three of our team joined the crowds of people who flocked to the Larchfield Estate from near and far to buy beautiful artisan crafts and gifts at the celebrated annual Christmas in the Barn – and all the funds raised went to our drug education charity, to bring our powerful play to schools across Northern Ireland. We were bowled over not only by the warm-hearted welcome and generosity of everyone we met, but also by the enormous sum that was raised, and we’re incredibly grateful to Lucinda Kinnaird and Sarah Mackie for choosing our charity and making this happen.
I founded the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation in 2014 in response to the loss of my 16 year old son Dan to an unintentional overdose of ecstasy. Dan’s death left us determined, as his parents, to do all we could to prevent any harm happening to anyone else’s child from drugs. It made us realise how hard it becomes to avoid being faced with a decision about drugs as young people go through their teens, how little effective drug education was available in schools because of a huge gap in evidence-based provision, resources and support, and how vulnerable any young person can be to coming to harm as a result.
The DSM Foundation works extensively across England and Scotland from our London base, but we hadn’t yet reached Northern Ireland, and there were three key factors that led to us being at Larchfield last November: two mums and a youth theatre company.
As the charity has grown and spread over the years, I’ve connected with a number of other parents who have also tragically lost children to drugs. This includes NI mum Sandra Larmour, whose daughter Jeni died from ketamine in 2020 on her first day at university, and who was keen to make sure other NI young people were better armed to stay safe. I’ve also written two books for parents in recent years, the first of which, ‘I Wish I’d Known – Young People, Drug and Decisions’, was read by Larchfield Estate owner Sarah Mackie, who reached out to see if we could bring our play to NI schools.
Alongside this, a NI educational theatre company, Ever Unique Productions, decided to work on our play with their youth theatre groups in Ballymena and Coleraine in 2023, and Hannah Reilly and Martina McAfee, who between them run Ever Unique, contacted us through playwright Mark Wheeller, and I had a chat with their young cast online. When their productions were finished, having seen the impact on their young cast and their audiences, Hannah and Martina were keen to take the play into schools across NI, and got back in touch.
For context, the play is an important part of our core drug education programme, alongside evidence based drug education workshops for students and for their parents and carers, training for professionals and drug education teaching resources for every secondary year group. ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ is a verbatim play that we commissioned in the early months after Dan’s death, to tell his story using the words of his family and friends, in the hopes others could learn the lessons he no longer could, and keep themselves and their friends safe from harm. Since being published by Bloomsbury in 2017 it’s been studied, taught and performed across the UK and around the world, and since 2022 it has been a GCSE Drama set text in England and Wales. Alongside this, a shorter Theatre in Education version has been touring schools professionally since 2017 in England, and in Scotland since 2022.
When Sarah got back in touch later in 2023 to ask if we’d like to be the charity beneficiaries of Christmas in the Barn for 2024, we saw an ideal opportunity to raise the funds we’d need to commission Ever Unique Productions to take a Theatre in Education production of the play into schools, and that’s what we did, with strong support at every step from Sandra Larmour. Larchfield funding was topped up by six Policing and Community Safety Partnerships and a local councillor in Strabane, and in total 25 performances took place over two and a half weeks, reaching 27 schools and well over 4,000 students. There was also a showcase performance for stakeholders at Portadown Town Hall, and a community performance that evening attended by local youth organisations and families, both funded by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon PCSP.
The feedback from students showed the impact of the play was profound. 95% said they had learned more about the possible consequences of taking drugs, 97% said they knew more about the impact of drug use on others, and 95% said the workshop that followed performances gave them useful information and advice. Their comments backed this up:
“I thought it was the perfect balance of informative, useful, relatable, realistic, funny so was a good watch but serious and had a lasting impact on me.”
“I really enjoyed it and don't think I'll forget his story, I will likely tell this to others too.”
“Keep doing what you're doing as it's an amazing cause.”
“Absolutely powerful show and so emotional and informative. Thank you all.”
The success of this first dip of the toe in the waters of drug education in Northern Ireland has meant we already have a long waiting list of schools that want the play to come to their students next spring, and we’re in discussion with PCSPs about future funding for a tour in spring 2026. We’re just in the process of organising our first webinar for parents and carers in NI, for Jeni’s own school, The Royal School Armagh, co-hosted with Jeni’s mum Sandra. And we’re in conversation with the curriculum authority CCEA about adapting our drug education teaching resources for NI schools.
We’re so grateful for all the support from so many sources that’s enabled all this to happen, and have great hopes this is just the start of our work supporting young people to make safer choices about drugs across Northern Ireland. And this was all made possible by Christmas at the Barn at the Larchfield Estate, and the wonderful, hardworking women behind that, Lucinda and Sarah.
Guest Blog by Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE
For more information about the DSM Foundation see www.dsmfoundation.org.uk
Photo credit: Gorgeous Photography
