Grieving mother of Jeni Larmour warns of devastation drink mixed with drugs can cause
A grieving Co Armagh mother has urged young people to make sensible decisions, as the dust settles after an inquest into her teenage daughters' passing.
Sandra Larmour’s appeal comes after her 18-year-old daughter Jeni tragically died on her first night at university in 2020.
Talented singer and high academic achiever Jeni arrived at Newcastle University on October 2, and started drinking with her new halls flatmates.
In the early hours of the next morning, she was found dead on the bedroom floor of her neighbour, with alcohol and the tranquilliser ketamine in her system.
A snapchat video from that night showed Jeni sniffing white powder with new flatmate Kavir Kalliecharan from Leeds.
He told police that it was Miss Larmour’s, despite the only drugs in the eight-bedroom flat being found in his room.
The Larmour family always said the drugs could not have been Jeni’s, given that she had only arrived in the city hours before tragedy struck.
Now home in Armagh and after processing what coroner Karen Dilks said - that Jeni died by misadventure after consuming drink and drugs supplied by another - mum Sandra feels vindicated.
Sandra is missing her “best friend” Jeni, a shopaholic, talented artist and soon-to-be urban planner with an infectious laugh and “on-fleek” eyebrows.
Therefore, she wants to warn others of the dangers of drugs to prevent further loss of life.
“Obviously, if they abstain completely, that’s the best case scenario," she said. “But young people will be young people, they feel they need to dabble in these things to enjoy life.
“I believe that if that is so, it should be in a minimal aspect, they should have friends around them who know them very well.
“In Jeni’s case, that wasn’t the situation, she had collapsed on the floor sometime before 10pm and despite a number of people seeing her in that position, nothing was done and the ambulance wasn’t called until around 5am.”
Sandra told UTV live she believes there is a naivety about drugs in Northern Ireland, especially in rural areas, and hopes more conversations will now take place.
“You’ve seen the green fields out here, we are very country, I would not have known that combination would have had such a devastating effect.
“That education can start very, very young - one of the groups that I had spoken to was a football club. They had kids from 11 years old and they’d listen with very rapt attention, so even at that age they are able to understand that things can go wrong.”
Sandra also reached out to parents.
“I did speak to Jeni before she went to university and I know her father did too, but up until now we just didn’t understand the devastating effect that this can have,” she said.
“When speaking to kids, they’ll probably say, ‘yea yea yea don’t be silly mum I wouldn’t do anything like that’, but the conversation needs to be strong and supporting and if something happens, any child needs to know they can call their parents.”
For anyone impacted by this story, help can be found here: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/getting-help-drug-or-alcohol-problems