Bereaved mum says talk to your kids about drugs

Anne-Marie Cockburn's daughter Martha died at the age of 15

The mother of a teenage girl who died after taking ecstasy has encouraged parents to talk to their children about how to reduce risks when taking drugs.

Anne-Marie Cockburn's daughter, Martha Fernback, from Oxford, died in 2013 at the age of 15 after taking 0.5g of MDMA, which turned out to be 91% pure.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's PM, Ms Cockburn said she understood it might feel "counter-intuitive" as most parents do not want their children to put themselves "in the way of danger" at all.

"But some of them will. And it's a lot harder to talk about your child in the past tense than it is having a harm reduction conversation with them," she said.

Martha was an "extraordinary person who was still working out who she was" when she died, Ms Cockburn said.

On 20 July 2013, Martha met her friends in a local park and took ecstasy.

She died three hours later.

"I went from organising our summer holiday to getting the phone call that no parent wants to get," Ms Cockburn said.

Martha died after taking MDMA which can come in pill or powder form

She said Martha told her about the drugs two months earlier.

"I was really shocked that she told me the truth and I didn't really know what to say... So I just shouted at her."

'I wasn't listening'

Ms Cockburn said shielding children and teenagers from the reality of drugs would not stop them taking them.

"It's just going to make them feel that their parents are living in a different kind of realm to them," she said.

She said she wished she had connected with Martha when she had the chance.

"I wasn't listening to her," she said.

But she said there also needed to be a change in government policy to tackle the rise in drug deaths.

"Parents like me have to get up and be brave every day and face our lives without our children," she said.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government was "deeply concerned" about the impact of illicit drugs on communities.

They said: "We will continue our engagement with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug misuse, tackle the criminals behind the drug trade, and move forward with our mission to make streets safer."

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