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January 2026 – Supporter Newsletter |
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A new year brings new opportunities, and Team Dan is ready to continue our mission with renewed energy. We’re committed to equipping young people with the knowledge, confidence and practical skills they need to navigate decisions about drugs and stay safe.
In this newsletter, we’re sharing what’s coming up in the months ahead, and how your ongoing support helps to reach even more young people with our life-saving work. Together, we can make 2026 a year of real impact. |
A huge thank you!
A big Team Dan thank you to everybody who has joined in with recent fundraising events: |
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A huge thank you to our Vitality 10K runners, Jash Masih, Nathan Williams & Ethan Early who completed this challenge at the end of September 2025, collectively raising £1,115 for the Foundation.
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Our Big Give Christmas 2025 campaign raised an incredible £26,653, thanks to you, our fabulous supporters. Thousands of young people will benefit in 2026 from lifesaving drug education workshops and performances of the play that tells Dan’s story.
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Will Perrett and Lawrence Everest will be lacing up their running shoes for the TCS London Marathon in April, raising both vital funds and awareness. Thank you to both individuals for taking on this iconic race for the DSMF.
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Freddie Fifield will be running 26.2 miles at the Brighton Marathon in support of the Foundation, and his motivation is incredibly special, as he knew Dan from school. We will be supporting him every step of the way.
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We couldn’t do what we do without our regular donors, who we call our Friends of the Foundation. Whether you’ve been with us since the very beginning or joined more recently, your generosity keeps our work going, and for that, we are very grateful. We also want to use this moment to say that one of our dear Friends of the Foundation, Pat Hobern, who supported us since 2016, died peacefully at the end of last year. She was a wonderful woman with a brilliantly enthusiastic laugh and a big heart; our thoughts are with her family and friends. |
Thank you as well to all the companies and organisations who have supported us financially in the last few months, specifically: |
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Crédit Agricole CIB, Fidelity International and Artemis Charitable Foundation for their generation donations and support.
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We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Amanda Shortland and Julie Ludlow, our two wonderful volunteers who have worked with the Foundation since the very early days. From our office and Preston respectively, both Amanda and Julie offer their time, skills and experience so willingly to the Foundation, and without them both we would be much less than we are. |
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Help us help young people: We have two places left in the 2026 Brighton Marathon, if you or someone you know would like to experience this unique city to sea route, you can find all the details and how to register here.
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This year we won’t be holding our annual DSMF Quiz Night, but we’d love to keep the tradition alive with your help. Could you rally your friends, colleagues or community and host a quiz fundraiser in aid of the Foundation? Whether it’s in a school hall, a sports club, a community centre, your workplace, or even around your kitchen table, every question asked and every pound raised helps us continue our life-saving work with young people.
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A significant amount of our provision requires funding over and above the amount we charge, and we simply couldn’t do it without those who champion our cause in lots of different ways. If you know of any other opportunities – from fundraisers, to organisations who might want to support us, to grants we could apply for – please contact grace@dsmfoundation.org.uk. |
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What’s new for our provision?
Last term we were really busy with student workshops, delivering 138 workshops in 87 settings that reached nearly 18,000 young people. We also ran 26 sessions for adults in the lives of young people, reaching over 550 parents, caregivers and professionals, and we have secured a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund for a significant number of parent sessions over the next couple of years, so there will be many more of those to come!
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Our Scottish play tour was our longest (and most geographically spread!) to date, with Tie It Up Theatre putting on 45 live performances last term, which reached over 11,000 young people. Of those who completed a feedback survey, 95 per cent said they had learned more about the possible consequences of taking drugs, 94 per cent said they had learned more about the impact of drug use on others, and 92 per cent said the workshop that followed gave them useful information and advice.
The six week London tour of ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’ – again, with Tie It Up Theatre – has just kicked off, and Mark Wheeller’s recounting of Dan’s story in the words of his family and friends will also be returning to Northern Ireland later this term, performed once more by Ever Unique Productions.
We are delighted that this moving piece of drama continues to make such an impact, and you can see where we go and what we do more broadly on our socials, so do follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or LinkedIn. |
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Since our last newsletter, Rachel Taylor has joined us in our new Operations Coordinator role. She has already done an incredible job, using her skills & experience to support our finance systems and improving several of our regular processes, and helping to organise Fiona’s complex diary & remit. |
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We have also been joined by Diane Ord as our new Scottish Coordinator, replacing Don Thomas who left us in the summer. Diane is based in Aberdeenshire, and is starting to coordinate our work across Scotland and explore new funding & development opportunities there. |
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After being our Treasurer Trustee since 2016, Nick Martin is standing down – we are very grateful to Nick for his commitment and input to the growth of the Foundation. He will formally resign at the AGM at the end of January. Stepping into his shoes is Duncan MacGregor. Born and bred in Aberdeen and now based in Surrey, Duncan has spent 30 years working in the media sector launching television stations across the globe, and is currently a director and co-owner of a company manufacturing professional broadcast equipment. A father of two, Duncan can be seen performing on the London Open Mic comedy circuit and has recently graduated with a MA in Comedy Writing!
As many of our regular readers know, a research team at Middlesex University has been evaluating our drug education programme, with government funding awarded via the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Innovation Fund. This ended last September, and the final report is still underway, but pupil focus groups contributed great insights and advice for young people, parents/caregivers and teachers, which have been put onto posters as one of the evaluation outcomes. We’ll be sharing these on our socials so keep an eye out. |
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Fiona continues to chair the national Drug Education Forum, whose ever-expanding membership benefits from hearing from leading experts in the field at regular online events and a podcast series, and from connecting with others working in the sector. She also remains a member of the government’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), sitting on two standing committees, for Prevention and for Treatment, Recovery and Harm Reduction, and also part of the working group reviewing the harms associated with ketamine. |
And finally...
This newsletter reaches you just after the 12th anniversary of Dan’s death, and it is only with your help that our sycamore seeds have been able to reach as far as they have. For some individuals that is making a donation or undertaking some fundraising, for others it is talking about what we do, and raising awareness of the importance of drug education for all young people, as it enables them to make more informed choices and increases the chance of them doing what Dan didn’t get to do: get home safely.
Thank you for your support, in all its forms. You are helping save lives. |
Registered Charity no. 1158921 (CCEW) and SC052164 (OSCR) Palmerston House
814 Brighton Road
Purley
Surrey
CR8 2BR
United Kingdom |
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