UK: Martha's shoes: Anne-Marie's journey, a mother who lost her daughter to an ecstasy overdose

We spoke to Anne-Marie Cockburn just days after the anniversary of the death of her daughter Martha from an ecstasy overdose. She is one of the founders of Anyone’s Child, an organisation of people who have lost a family member and demand a change in drug policies.

In the early hours of July 20, 2013, Anne-Marie Cockburn received an unexpected call that would change the course of her life. Her fifteen-year-old daughter Martha was critically ill in hospital after taking MDMA. She died shortly after. Thus begins the journey of this mother from Oxford who, unafraid of making the political class uncomfortable, has become a tireless activist for drug policy reform in the United Kingdom, so that there are no more stories like Martha’s.

After the death of her daughter, Anne-Marie began writing 5,742 Days (the number of days Martha lived), a book that chronicles the first months of mourning in real time and that warms your heart on every page. She is co-author of What Martha Did Next (‘What Martha Did Next’, 2015) and one of the founders of Anyone’s Child, an organisation of people who have lost a family member and demand a change in drug policies. She speaks passionately and nostalgically about her involvement with The Forgiveness Project, a restorative justice program in which she visited prisons and shared her story with inmates.