In January 2014, our son, Dan, died from multiple organ failure, three days after taking ecstasy at his first ever rave. He was just 16.

After Dan died, we connected with Sycamore Tree, a victim awareness and restorative justice course for prisoners, run by Prison Fellowship. We agreed to tell our story on a Sycamore Tree course at HMP Brixton. Since then we have spoken on dozens of courses, to hundreds of prisoners.

All we do is tell our story. We tell them what it was like to lose Dan, and to then sit through the trial. The learners we meet in prison often haven’t thought about the other side of the story. It is always a very intense and moving time.

The sycamore tree’s seeds spin out as they fall — you don’t know where they are going to land. In the same way, we can’t ever know fully what impact the Sycamore Tree course will have on a prisoner. We know this step is just one on the long and difficult journey they have before them to turn their lives around. And so we pray what they learn on the course, and what they experience, will give them strength in the difficult days to come.

Whenever we tell Dan’s story, we pray that it would bear much fruit, that from something so terrible would come life, hope and redemption. The only way this can happen is through God. We believe there is nothing so bad that God can’t redeem it and bring good from bad, light from darkness, life from death.

It is a privilege for Tim and me to be part of the work that God is doing in prisoners’ lives. Today I want to ask if you will join us in this work. Please would you consider making a gift today to support a Sycamore Tree learner as they begin the journey of turning their life around?

Our son, Dan, was so young when he died. He had all his life ahead of him. The best restitution the offender could make would be to live his best life now, to live life in all its fullness. And that is what we hope for every Sycamore Tree learner.

With heartfelt thanks,

Fiona Spargo-Mabbs