A multi-millionaire TV reality star and dad-of-six has donated £50,000 to boost a reward fund for information about the burial site of murdered Co Down woman Lisa Dorrian.
The single donation, which is almost twice the average salary in Northern Ireland, was made today by businessman Barrie Drewitt-Barlow.
The reality TV star approached Lisa’s sister Joanne Dorrian from his base in the US, after spotting the Let's Find Lisa campaign on Twitter.
And now he has handed £50,000 to the reward fund in the hope Lisa will finally be returned to her family 17 years after her murder.
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Barrie said: “As a dad who lives for my children, I felt compelled to reach out and offer to help Lisa’s sister Joanne, as I could see all the efforts her family have put into finding Lisa over the last number of years.
“I tried to imagine living in their shoes for a moment and I instantly knew that those were not shoes I would ever want to be in.”
Barrie became one of the UK’s most famous dads after he and now ex-husband Tony, became Britain’s first gay couple to be co-registered as parents, after welcoming twins Saffron and Aspen via surrogacy in 1999, followed by a son, Orlando.
Having waited for 11 years and spent £1 million on their IVF journey, Barrie said he has been moved by the Dorrian family’s ongoing dedication to Lisa 17 years after her murder at a caravan park in Ballyhalbert, Co Down.
Barrie confirmed he offered the £50,000 donation to boost the reward fund in a bid to draw out the last piece of information needed to lead the Dorrians to Lisa's burial site. Only then will they be able to give the 25-year-old the dignified funeral they have wanted for her for years.
Barrie said: “I really hope this donation to their reward fund will encourage the person who knows where Lisa is to be brave and speak up. And I hope it will encourage others to donate to the fund and ultimately help Lisa be found and let her loved ones find peace at long last.
“I really feel for the Dorrian family and I hope that this money, added to other donations, will be the key to unlocking Lisa’s disappearance.”
Lisa’s sister Joanne, a missing persons campaigner and victims advocate, said the donation came out of the blue and left her and her family stunned but elated.
She explained: “We started the reward fund just one week ago and we were delighted when the fund total reached almost £9,000.
“So we were overwhelmed when Barrie got in contact and offered £50,000 to the fund. It is just incredible, potentially life changing for someone.
“We have thanked Barrie for his generous donation but in reality there are no words to express just how grateful we are to him for stepping up and helping us in this way.
“We’ve always been deeply touched by the kindness of strangers down the years, and I have been urging people to spare us £1 as we worked to build the fund because every penny literally counts.
“Now this donation has far surpassed anything we could ever have expected and it has been made for all the right reasons.
“It’s obvious that Barrie is a loving family man and I’m so grateful that our appeal struck a chord with him. Thank you Barrie.
"We would love to offer as much as possible to the person who lets us know where Lisa is, in the hope that they will see it as a way to pay for a fresh start knowing that they have given us peace and allowed Lisa the dignified burial and resting place that she so deserves.
“Barrie’s donation of £50k means we can do that and if more people help out by donating anything they can, then we would have an even bigger chance bringing our long wait and our search to a conclusion.
“We would love to be able to offer a life changing amount like £100k. Finding Lisa means everything to us and Barrie’s donation means it really could be a reality soon.”
Manchester-born Barrie was unaware of Lisa's links to Manchester when he decided to step in. Both Lisa and her mum Pat were born in Oldham, Manchester and spent many happy years there before they moved to Northern Ireland together.
Barrie said: “Since I learned of the Manchester connection to Lisa’s family on her mum's side, it has felt even nicer to be able to help people from my hometown. I would urge others to do the same.”
Sadly Pat Dorrian, overwhelmed by 10 years of grief for her Lisa, died in 2015 aged 59. She was buried in Clandeboye Cemetery, Bangor, and now it is hoped the reward fund will help encourage information to be imparted to allow shop assistant Lisa to be buried alongside Pat, 17 years after she was murdered and her body purposely disappeared to cover the tracks of her killer.
Lisa was last seen at a party at a caravan site in Ballyhalbert on 28 February 2005. Her death and the ongoing police investigation were recently the subject of a four-part BBC documentary series, ‘Murder In The Badlands’ which remains available on BBC iPlayer.
Lisa’s dad John, paid tribute to his daughter and his wife and the shock donation to the fund, which now stands at £58,909. He said: “I want to thank Mr Drewitt-Barlow for his unbelievable generosity towards our reward to find Lisa. From one dad to another, thank you.
“Our daughter Lisa has been missing for 17 years now and my wife Pat died in 2015 never knowing where Lisa had been hidden. My wife died of a broken heart.
“Thank you for all the support for the reward fund and thank you to the PSNI for their ongoing investigation into the disappearance and murder of Lisa.”
The Dorrian family has established a confidential message facility where information can be sent to them anonymously. You can leave them a message by clicking here. And the family's funding GoFundMe to boost the reward amount can be reached by clicking here.
Who is Barrie Drewitt-Barlow
- Barrie Drewitt-Barlow has recently been back in the public eye in Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 2 on Bravo YouTube
- A former hairdresser and social worker from Manchester, Barrie and his then husband Tony made history as the dads to children Aspen and Saffron in 1999, who were the first babies from Europe to have both fathers on the birth certificates.
- In 2000, he set up the British Surrogacy Centre of America after the birth of his own children and the first European office was set up in 2010 and continues to grow on a yearly basis, according to his website.
- As well as his role as a primary charter guest on TV hit, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Barrie is known in the US as the 'Odour Guru', a professional armpit sniffer, he is technical director at medical research company, Princeton Consumer Research.
- Deodorant companies send their products to the research labs for the ultimate sniff test from Barry who has worked in this area for more than 26 years.
- In November 2019, he revealed that he had made $12million from his day job and has also expanded into real estate and development.
- Currently living in Tampa, Florida, Barrie grew up in Manchester and trained as a hairdresser from the age of 14. He later qualified as a social worker in 1996 and completed his Masters in social work in 2000.
- Today Barrie is a father to Aspen, Saffron, Orlando, Jasper and Dallas with his ex-husband Tony, and he is now engaged to Scott, who he has daughter Valentina with.
- He has an estimated combined net worth of $40 million with ex-husband Tony from whom he split in 2019.
