DSM Foundation founder and director recieves OBE from King

The DSM Foundation is delighted to announce that Fiona Spargo-Mabbs, founder and director of the DSM Foundation, received her OBE from King Charles during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, July 11th, 2023. Fiona was named in the 2023 New Year’s Honours List for her work with young people, having set up the drugs education charity the DSM Foundation when her son Daniel died after taking an accidental overdose of ecstasy in 2014.

Fiona commented: "It was such a special day, and an enormous honour to be given this level of recognition for the work of the DSM Foundation, and to receive it from the King himself - but it was also deeply bittersweet, weighted as it was with the loss of Dan, without which none of this would have happened."

Information for editors:

The DSM Foundation was established in 2014 following the death of 16 year old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs from an accidental overdose of ecstasy. His family felt that he simply hadn’t known enough to be able to make decisions that would keep him safe, and set up the charity in order to spare other families going through what they had experienced. The aim of the DSM Foundation is to provide young people with relevant, age-appropriate, up to date and evidence-based information about drugs so they develop the skills to make choices that will keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible. However, the adults involved in the lives of those young people also need such information and skills in order to provide appropriate support and advice: NHS surveys regularly show that parents are the most commonly sought out source of information about drugs by 11-15 year olds, and hence the caregiver workshops provided by the DSM Foundation are invaluable.

For more information about the DSM Foundation, go to https://www.dsmfoundation.org.uk/.

Media enquiries about this press release or the work of the DSM Foundation should be sent to media@dsmfoundation.org.uk.