Robert, Michelle's Boy
Kent, England
Robert is the first recorded Fentanyl death in the UK.
Michelle brought Fentanyl to the attention of the UK.
She spent 8 months working with Parliament and Robert’s Law was passed, to amongst other things, consider potency in sentencing.
Robert was born on 24/10/98 and died just 26 days after his 18th birthday on 19/11/16.
He was my 6’ 5” by two inches wide gentle giant.
His passion was skateboarding and family.
He was not an addict when he died, but could very quickly have become one, as he was given opioids unknowingly.
6 weeks after his death, the police contacted us. They were unable to tell us what the drugs were that he’d been given. Tests came back inconclusive for any street drugs.
12 weeks after Robert’s death the police contacted us again. They said that the drug they had removed from my Rob, was a drug called Fentanyl.
I asked the police to spell this for me. I googled it. The numbers of deaths scared me so much I thought - I can’t keep quiet about this.
I didn’t. I set about raising awareness here in the UK and then campaigned for Robert’s Law in memory of my son, to save lives.
Robert’s Law has three stages:
1. Getting the antidote available.
2. Making the judge aware of the strength of Fentanyl. When Rob died I was told it was a class A drug - but it’s not, it’s so much stronger.
3. Double the sentence for people dealing Fentanyl.
Thankfully we did achieve this ….MY SON MATTERED!!
I’ve never said Robert’s Law was a solution, I just prayed it would be a deterrent.
Michelle, Robert’s Mother