These are my children, Matthew and Lucy. Every 15th November is my beautiful daughter Lucy’s birthday. Sadly, she died aged just 10 yrs old. Her brother Matt died aged 12 yrs old, both killed by a drunk driver in the same horrendous road accident that also killed their friend Ben and seriously injured their father. There was no justice…the drunk driver, who was found to be 3.5 times over the drink driving limit, died at the scene. At the inquest, a verdict of accidental death was given, which made a lot of people angry, but because he was an influential business man and respected charity worker, no-one would actually allow their statements to be used as evidence. My Mum always said that by dying, he got away lightly.
I haven’t said much about this in public before as the pain runs too deep, and it hurts to go there too often, but I feel that now is the time to tell my story and try to prevent this kind of devastating, and totally avoidable tragedy happening to anyone else.
My children mean the world to me, and life without Matt and Lucy has been an empty, painful and hard journey. I can’t even begin to describe here what it did to us all as a family, not to mention the struggle that their little brother Pete had, coming to terms with their ‘disappearance’. At just 2 years old when they died, it took years for him to put the pieces together and make any sense of it all. His saving grace was the birth of my little girl Eliza, born 14 months later, who put some fun and laughter back in his life.
So, my message to everyone out there is PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!! And if you are partying this Christmas, please either have a designated driver, take a taxi, or walk to that Christmas party. DON’T RISK IT, it just isn’t worth it. And don’t think it won’t happen to you….it happened to my beautiful children, and it’s happened to many others like them.
Please share this. I want to get my message across to as many people as possible….Thankyou xxxx
Sarah Jane Pascoe-Hudson
