In November 2024 the Larchfield Estate in Lisburn hosted their annual Christmas in the Barn, and this year it raised £23,938.28 for our charity. This will enable us to fund a new production of our 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. The incredibly positive response of schools to the offer of performances for pupils has seen the tour rapidly booked out, with additional days needing to be added to meet demand. We have commissioned Ballymena and Coleraine-based educational theatre company, Ever Unique Productions, to create a new production for Northern Ireland schools, based on the highly successful production their two youth theatres performed in 2023.
All of this is being promoted and supported by Sandra Larmour from County Armagh, who was delighted to receive a cheque on behalf of the DSM Foundation from the Christmas in the Barn team, Lucinda Kinnaird and Sarah Mackie. Sandra’s daughter Jeni sadly died when she was 18 on her first day at Newcastle University having taken ketamine. Sandra has been working closely with Fiona, as fellow bereaved mums both determined to prevent the harm that happened to their own children happening to anyone else’s.
Thank you so much to EVERY single person involved, including all the stall holders and visitors who kindly donated.
P.s – donations to cover the remaining costs of the tour can be made here https://fundraising.dsmfoundation.org.uk/fundraising/northern-ireland-drug-education