The mum of a two-year-old girl who died after swallowing a button battery has taken her campaign to save young lives to the Houses of Parliament. Stacy-Marie Nicklin’s daughter Harper-Lee Fanthorpe died in May last year after swallowing a little disc battery that had fallen out of a remote control, reports StokeonTrentLive.
Since then, Stacy-Marie, 36, working with the Sentinel/StokeonTrentLive and local MP Jo Gideon, has set up the Harper-Lee Foundation. It aims to raise awareness about the dangers of button batteries - which are found in many seemingly innocuous household items, including children’s toys - and today the Foundation took its powerful message to the corridors of power.
In the Churchill Rooms at the Palace of Westminster, gathered MPs, government ministers and other policy makers heard of the tragic death of Harper-Lee, and the work that has been done by the Foundation since to try to spread the word about the dangers they pose to youngsters. Stacy-Marie said: “It’s hard to believe that we’re here at Westminster today. I knew when Harper died that I couldn’t let that be for nothing, that we had to do something in her name, to help stop other little ones dying they way she did.
“But to see that we’ve come this far in her memory is amazing. The work Jo has done has been fantastic, and to be able to come here and spread the word to people who can take that word away and help make a difference all over the country is wonderful.”
Harper-Lee swallowed a button battery that slipped from a remote control at Stacy-Marie’s home in Abbey Hulton. The toddler had innocently popped it in her mouth, and when it became lodged in her oesophagus it burned through the tissue and caused massive, unsurvivable internal bleeding. She died in hospital later that day.
Harper-Lee died after swallowing a button battery from a remote control (Image: Stoke Sentinel)
Her death prompted an outpouring of grief in the local community, but Stacy-Marie’s harrowing story made national and international headlines. And what quickly became clear was that the dangers of button batteries were not widely known.
Since then, the campaign has made huge strides in raising awareness about the health risk the batteries pose, and also bringing industry and retail leaders and policy makers around the table to try to prevent more lives being needlessly lost. One of the most touching moments of today’s event was the meeting, for the first time in person, between Stacy-Marie and fellow campaigner Holly Phillips.
Holly, 28, from Watford, nearly lost her baby son Ralphie in an horrific incident in August last year. It was on his first birthday that he put in his mouth the battery which, unbeknownst to his mum, had fallen from a device and landed on the carpet in their home. Holly was with her son at the time and when she saw him struggling, she knew something was wrong but had no idea that it was something as serious as it proved to be.
He was rushed to hospital and eventually medics realised what had happened. Ralphie survived, but suffers to this day from the physical impact the corrosive battery had on his body. She posted on Facebook about what had happened to her son and overnight her post had more than 250,000 views.
MP Jo Gideon met with Stacie-Marie Nicklin, the mum of Harper-Lee, and is to raise the safety of button batteries in parliament
One of those viewers was Harper-Lee’s mum Stacy-Marie, who got in touch with her. And today, the pair met for the first time face to face, at Westminster, to help launch the Harper-Lee Foundation.
Holly said: “My baby was on the carpet when he found it and put it in his mouth. This could have happened to anyone. Every day I get messages from people about products that these batteries are falling out of. It’s so important that we raise as much awareness of this as we can.”
Jo said: "I was delighted to host this event in Parliament to raise the profile of the work of the Harper-Lee Foundation, so that communities across the United Kingdom will become more aware of the danger of button battery ingestion. My parliamentary colleagues were invited to sign a pledge to raise awareness in their constituencies so that we can avoid more tragic deaths and injuries from button battery and coin cell ingestion by children. This will be Harper-Lee’s legacy.”
Marc Waddington, Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive editor, who is a trustee of the Harper-Lee Foundation and attended the event at Westminster, said: “When Stacy-Marie first spoke to us about what had happened to Harper-Lee, so many readers responded to say that the first thing they did after reading about her tragic death was to go all around their houses removing button batteries from devices.
“That meant many more children were safer than they were before, and the chances are that some of their lives were saved as a result of the awareness that Stacy-Marie was able to raise.
“Since then, Jo Gideon has worked tirelessly to spread that message further and form the Foundation, whose purpose will be the lasting legacy of a very special little girl whose life was cut so short in such tragic and needless circumstances.”
MP Jo Gideon with Stacy-Marie Nicklin and Holly Phillips (Image: © Matthew J. Bridger)
Chris Speight from the British and Irish Portable Battery Association (BIPBA) said: “As an industry we are taking button and coin cell safety seriously. Through our work with partners such as CAPT and with the help of Government and groups like the Harper-Lee Foundation, we are not just working hard to raise awareness of the risks associated with these types of batteries but we are working to reduce the number of ingestion incidents occurring.
"Ahead of Button Battery Awareness Day, this Sunday, June 12, we were very pleased to see so many MPs pledge to become button battery aware, and we hope that they take the message of battery safety back to their constituencies.”
Katrina Phillips from the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) said: “If a small child swallows a large powerful lithium coin cell battery, it can get stuck in their food pipe and corrode through tissue, causing life-changing injuries and even death. It was fantastic to see so many Members of Parliament take an interest in button battery safety and we hope they will raise awareness in their local constituencies. Too many parents still don’t know how important it is to keep things with easily accessible lithium coin cell batteries out of children’s reach and to act fast if they think their child may have swallowed one. Hopefully, through events like this, we will see an end to these terrible accidents.”
More details on the Harper-Lee Foundation can be found here.
