In November, the Larchfield estate in Lisburn hosted their annual Christmas in the barn and this year they raised £23,938.28 for a drug education charity called the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs (DSM) Foundation. With this money, the charity intends to fund a production of their powerful commissioned verbatim play, ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ by Mark Wheeller, which will tour schools across Northern Ireland for two weeks in Spring 2025. As this tour is rapidly booked out, additional shows will have to be added in order to meet demands following the positive responses of schools.
The play is based on a true story about the life and tragic death of sixteen-year-old Dan Spargo-Mabbs. His story led his parents to start the drug education charity in his name and it’s now well established in England and rapidly growing in Scotland but not yet working in Northern Ireland. This event is being promoted and supported by Sandra Larmour from County Armagh whose daughter Jeni died at age 18 on her first day at Newcastle university having taken ketamine. Since then, Sandra has been working closely with Fiona Spargo-Mabbs who is Dan’s mum and the director and founder of the DSM foundation in order to prevent the harm that happened to their own children happening to anyone else’s. Martine McAfee, The Ever Unique Productions co-founder and co-director said: “Getting to perform the Irish premier of the play was something our young people welcome with open arms. They truly became invested in telling Dan’s story.” Donations to cover the remaining costs of the tour can be made here:
https://fundraising.dsmfoundation.org.uk/fundraising/northern-ireland-drug-education
Lucinda Kinnard (Event Organiser), Sarah Mackie of Larchfield Estate, and Sandra Larmour, mum of Jeni Larmour, who is working in conjunction with DSM Foundation to bring Drug Education to NI.
