Anthony Harrison
IT was 5.30am when police knocked on the door of Fiona and Tim Spargo-Maggs to explain their son Dan was fighting for his life in intensive care.
The 16-year-old’s temperature had soared past 42C as his body struggled to cope with the super-strength dose of MDMA he had taken hours earlier at a rave, resulting in his organs slowly shutting down one by one.
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Days later, as his parents and brother Jacob, now 29, kept vigil over his hospital bed, Dan tragically passed away.
Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE tells The Sun today: “I didn’t feel we were naive to drugs being there, or naive to the possibility that Dan might try something.
“But you can think about these things and never actually think it is going to be your child.
“But also I didn’t realise quite how much stuff was out there and this was ten years ago.
“The amount of MDMA in Dan’s blood was so strong, 12 times stronger than had caused fatalities in the past. Some people with a really high level of tolerance may have coped with that, especially if they spread it out, but it was just way, way too strong.”
In the decade since their son’s cruel death in January 2014, Fiona and Tim have set up the DCM Foundation in his name and worked tirelessly to educate parents, teachers and kids about drugs and alcohol.
Today, as thousands of youngsters descend on Glastonbury Festival, she is issuing a fresh warning to parents after a report found super-strength ecstasy pills containing potentially life-threatening amounts of MDMA are on the rise.
Drug charity The Loop conducted tests on drugs seized at Manchester’s Parklife festival and in Bristol and is urging revellers to be cautious after testing pills containing up to 300mg of MDMA, with average strengths returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Fiona says: “I have picked up The Loop’s warnings and obviously I am really concerned because it puts especially young, inexperienced users, or anybody to be honest, at risk.
“People don’t always behave at festivals like they do in the rest of life. It is like a sense of different rules apply. Plus also it can be hot and there can be other factors that make it more risky, things like heat dehydration can affect people.
“So I am really concerned if there are extra strong pills out there, which there seems to be so often, especially MDMA.”
At Parklife in Manchester earlier this month, The Loop tested samples of green, purple and grey-coloured ecstasy tablets which had either been seized by police or placed in amnesty bins.
The pills were of comparable strengths to those which have previously led to hospitalisations, and even deaths.
In the 2021 post-lockdown festival season, the charity found a huge increase in synthetic cathinones and caffeine being missold as MDMA, with nearly half of products contacting no MDMA at all.
But their testing this year has revealed an increase in the average strength of ecstasy pills, having tested a number of pills containing more than 300mg of MDMA – around three times a common adult dose.
This is the first time they have tested pills containing this amount of MDMA since before the pandemic.
The fear is young ravers could be at risk if they have been used to taking lower strength pills in the past four years and are caught unawares by the new super-strength drugs.
‘You never think it will be your child’
Dan’s parents describe him as a bright, articulate, funny son who was much loved at his school, Archbishop Tenison CE High School in Croydon, where he was voted ‘Prom King’ at the end of Year 11.
Outside of school, he had a social conscience, running errands for elderly people he met on his daily paper round, and he was involved in youth work at the church he attended with his family.
It was January 2014 when Dan persuaded Fiona to let him go to a party with a group of friends.
However, instead of going to a party, the youngster and his friends went to an illegal rave in Hillingdon, the first time he’d been to such an event.
At the rave Dan took MDMA, along with four of his group, but he had no way of knowing that there was a lethal amount in the bag he had
The other four boys were fine, but whichever of them had had that bag would almost certainly also have died. It just happened to be Dan.
As a result of taking MDMA, Dan’s body temperature soared to 42⁰C and above. At this temperature, the body’s organs can’t cope and they shut down.
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For a couple of hours his friends couldn’t find him, and when they did he was propped up outside the building in the rain with paramedics.
Dan was taken to A&E while police tracked down his parents to deliver the shocking news.
They were told that because his legs were swelling, he needed an operation to cut them open to relieve the pressure, or they would have had to have been amputated.
On January 18, Dan was transferred to King’s College Hospital Liver Unit, where machines did the work of his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and circulatory system.
Hospital staff did everything they could to save him, but his body could not cope with the effects of the drug and he died on January 20, surrounded by his family.
People don’t always behave at festivals like they do in the rest of life. It is like a sense of different rules apply
Fiona
“I didn’t feel that we were naïve, but you just never think it is going to happen really,” Fiona says.
“We had had conversations about drugs at home. Of my two boys Dan was always the one who was up for a new experience, he was curious, a bit outrageous.
“But also he had always managed risk quite well from being quite tiny. He did weight stuff up.
“But I knew of either of them, if someone was going to try something it would be more likely to be Dan.
“I just didn’t realise how much drugs are around for young people. Dan had been to Reading after his GCSEs and that was the first time he had seen anyone take ecstasy or MDMA.
“He was such a chatterbox and he came home and told me all about what he had seen – he said they were so funny mum, they looked like this, and their eyes were like that.
If you suspect or know that your child is using drugs
The DSM Foundation’s advice and how to get help:
- Understand the reasons for your concern– could there be other explanations?
- Act as a team – if you have both parents involved stand together in this if you can, or get a partner, sibling or good friend to be with you to offer support
- Ask your child about it – they may be defensive or angry, but they may also be relieved
- Try not to panic, interrogate, accuse or jump to conclusions
- Listen and try to understand – try to keep the conversation one that doesn’t get closed off, and can be come back to if needs be
- Talk harm reduction – if you know your child is using specific substances and is continuing to do so it’s vital they have a good knowledge of how the risks they are taking can be minimised as much as possible
- Talk to others – talk to trusted friends and family, and consider speaking to your child’s school or college, or other professionals involved with them.
- Get professional help for your child if needed – sometimes parents aren’t the best ones to make things better.
- Get help and support for yourself – you can find help and support from Drugfam’s helpline, or find a local support group for families through Adfam.
“So we had a conversation then about ecstasy and MDMA saying you don’t know what is in it, you don’t know how much. It can just take one time.
“But he had got those random statistics like you are more likely to die making toast.
“For Dan it was the third time he had taken anything. We had had no idea about the previous two times, and the second time he hadn’t really enjoyed it.
“So on this third time he had been quite reluctant to go to this rave. We knew nothing of any of this until we got his phone back from the police.
“There had been a lot of chat about the rave and the MDMA. But apparently all the way to the rave he had been holding his MDMA back, while the others were sipping theirs in water.
“And in a way that was his downfall because sipping it is a good way to gauge how strong something is. Everyone else was fine.”
Vital conversations
As festival season gets into full swing with Glastonbury this weekend, Fiona and the Foundation are urging parents to have conversations with their kids to ensure they are fully-prepared for any risks they encounter.
Meanwhile, The Loop is running a #TakeQuarterSipWater campaign this summer as part of its efforts to “meet festival attendees where they’re at”, with estimates that more than half of festival-goers take drugs.
While Fiona says while there is no totally safe way to take drugs, she is backing the campaign along with drug testing at festivals as vital harm reduction methods.
She warns parents with children travelling to festivals: “Absolutely have those conversations and make sure they have a good understanding of the unpredictable risks there can be with drugs from an illegal source.
All the way to the rave he had been holding his MDMA back, while the others were sipping theirs in water. And in a way that was his downfall
Fiona
“And also what can make decision-making with their friends that bit more complicated. So work through scenarios about what would happen if you didn’t feel comfortable or safe – what would they do?
“Make sure they check out where the welfare or medical area is in case they need it. Make sure that they know that they can always call you.
“Not everybody always has a great time at festivals, so if anything is going haywire parents need to make sure they are there at the end of a phone and ready to pick them up if they need to get away.
“Remember that dehydration is an issue when it is hot, make sure you’ve got a big water bottle and keep it topped up.”
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Fiona adds: “You can have (a drug) that is identical but affects different people differently, or you can have something that looks the same but has completely different contents.
“Pills that look the same and have gone through the same pill press, but unless someone has made sure the ingredients are really thoroughly mixed and it is the same batch, you just can’t tell if one pill is going to be the same as another.
“And definitely with a little bag of white powder you had no idea.”
Glastonbury has a strict drug policy, and says the dealing in or use of illegal drugs is not condoned and police officers will be on site to deal with drug offences according to national guidelines.
The festival says their message is not to take drugs on site as you risk being evicted, but they also have medical and welfare services on site to help people who may suffer adverse effects from any substances taken.
For further drugs education information visit dsmfoundation.org.uk
‘A bright, articulate and talented pupil’
A excerpt from a tribute to Dan written by his headteacher, Richard Parrish, a week after he died.
Daniel joined us in Year 7 in September 2008, following in the footsteps of his brother Jacob, who was already at the school. He quickly made his mark as a bright, articulate and talented pupil with interests ranging from football to drama and a notable academic ability.
Through Years 7-11 he also became known for his quirky sense of humour, his capacity for making others laugh, his sociable nature, his insights into the way the world worked and his innate sense of justice and fairness. He challenged the system with his one man campaign to retain a particular haircut, researching his case in the Charter of Human Rights.
He developed into a talented performer on stage, trying his hand at Macbeth and taking a solo part in Those Canaan Days in the school production of Joseph. His academic progress was marked, too: his Year 11 report noted his talents in several subjects and his increased maturity and focus; he took his teachers’ advice; in his GCSEs he gained 3 grades at A* and 3 at A as well as a grade C in an AS Level in Religious Studies taken early.
In the Sixth Form Daniel was studying English Literature, History, Politics and Economics. He was the classic Sixth former: he contributed so much by his presence that one student wrote that there was always something missing from the lessons when he was not there. His lively interest in thinking and reading extended to his ambition to become an English teacher himself one day. One of his English teachers here was his “role model”. Outgoing when he wanted to be, he was reserved and thoughtful when he needed to be, a boy who wanted to
understand the world as well as live in it.
