Woman fundraising for school alcohol lessons

Jane McKenzie hopes children can learn from the mistakes her daughter made

A mother wants to raise money to offer free classes in schools about the dangers of alcohol addiction.

Jane McKenzie's 37-year-old daughter Amy died after many years of addiction and she wants children to learn lessons from her mistakes.

Ms McKenzie, a former mayor of Shrewsbury, said each of the classes would cost about £250 to put on, but she did not want schools to have to pay.

She said: "We don't want to charge the schools anything because we know they don't really have any money and also because we don't want to place any barriers in their way."

Ms McKenzie is a director of charity called Share Shrewsbury, which she set up to "tell the truth" about the dangers of drinking alcohol.

She said her daughter was a teenager when she was first persuaded to try alcohol by some older children and over time, she drank more and more, until she could not function without it.

In May 2019, Amy died after living with addiction for a long time.

The courses in schools are designed to teach children about the effects of alcohol on the body and use Amy's own story to show the impact it can have.

Ms McKenzie said she was approaching businesses and other organisations for sponsorship and was also fundraising online.

She said her aim was to create "more workshops to keep children safe and save lives".