5 years after son drowned, Mum's campaign to stop others from losing their lives continues
Mark Allen, 18, passed away after jumping into a reservoir in 2018
Last updated 5th Jun 2023
5-years on from the day a teenager died after jumping into a freezing cold reservoir to cool off, his mum's fight to help prevent others from losing their lives carries on.
Leeanne Bartley's son, Mark Allen, drowned after jumping into Debdale Reservoir in Gorton in 2018.
Since then, Leeanne has been campaigning fiercely to get safety equipment, such as throw lines, installed at bodies of water across the UK as well as more education about water safety in schools.
After years of campaigning and hundreds of thousands of signatures on various petitions, the Welsh government has backed her calls.
"The Welsh Government have accepted five of the six recommendations that were made and the sixth recommendation was accepted in principle." Leeanne said.
"It includes things like information, signage, a public awareness safety campaign, education for schools in Wales and things like that."
Despite the adoption of the recommendations from the Welsh government, Leeanne said the UK government had been slower
"We're still waiting. We're hoping to hear back ASAP really because we've had such huge success with the petition with the Welsh Government and we just feel it's so, so important that the UK Government also takes it on board.
"We did the legwork. We put in all the hard work and it's time, it's really time because people are still still losing their lives to drowning. It's still happening.
"Every year there are around 400 families who lose a loved one to drowning in inland waters and it's just really, really preventable if people are educated."
As well as the campaign to get the law changed since her son's death, Leeanne has also released a water safety children's book.
With the help of authors Richard O'Neill and Michelle Russell, last year she launched a book to educate children about water safety, including information about the risk of cold water shock, and what to do if you get into trouble.
Leeanne said:
"The idea for a book was just a dream I'd dreamt up to help Mark achieve his goal of becoming famous and helping others.
"Then, a talented author and illustrator reached out to me after she saw a water safety awareness post I'd shared and kindly offered to write a book in his memory.
"Our main goal is to share Mark's story far and wide, and hopefully we can help reduce the number of families affected by the loss of a loved one to drowning, as well as raise some money for good causes in the process too."
Music for Mark
In addition to raising awareness about water safety, Leanne and her family have also raised money for lifesaving services like the RNLI.
This summer, just three days after the World Health Organisation's 'World Drowning Prevention Day' Mark's sister Kelly has arranged a special concert to raise funds for the RNLI.
She said:
"I'm actually hosting an event in Manchester, called Music for Mark, I have a couple of local artists who will all be playing songs, doing a show and we'll have like an auction and raffle.
"It's to champion those who worked tirelessly to support people with water-related incidents and who have saved many lives.
"It's mainly just to raise awareness, support them and get the message out there again. This is all coming together for my brother, which is something that he always wanted and hopefully, he'll be watching up there.
The event is taking place on the 28th of July at Droylsden FC and funds raised will go to the RNLI."