29/09/2025
Whilst some training providers have mixed views on the anti choking device LifeVac, we fully support the device and ensure proper training in its use.
Here's the background of little Oliver Steepers tragic event & this is why the rules are changing eg EYS staff sitting with children whilst they eat and several Coroners pushing for annual paediatric courses instead of every 3 years.
As always, whenevers theres change, we will endeavour to keep you updated 🥰
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/197rsMEQps/
At this very moment, exactly four years ago today, our precious baby boy Oliver took his final breath. In the arms of his loving parents, Lewis and Zoe, his beautiful life was cut tragically short. In the space of just one unimaginable week, our whole world collapsed. We sent our healthy, happy, thriving nine month old baby to nursery, trusting he would be cared for and kept safe. Instead, Oliver suffered a choking episode on food wholly inappropriate for his tender age, given in a dangerous and overwhelming quantity.
The pain of that day has never left us. It is etched into our hearts and minds forever. What breaks us most is knowing that the first aid given to Oliver was desperately inadequate. We hold a firm and unshakable belief that, had those entrusted with his care acted as they should, Oliver would still be here with us today. Perhaps his life would have been changed forever, but we would have taken that, anything, over having to say goodbye to our son.
For the past four long years we have fought, and we continue to fight, for change. We have campaigned tirelessly to protect other children and families from the nightmare we live every single day. Thanks to the coroner at Oliver’s inquest, who issued a Prevention of Future Deaths notice, the government has been forced to finally confront the urgent need for reform in food safety and first aid in early years childcare across the UK. But change has been painfully slow, and without any acknowledgement from the Government for the little boy who's death made this changes forefront of childcare settings in the UK. Our hearts ache knowing it has taken the loss of our beautiful Oliver to even begin this process.
We miss Oliver every second of every day. His absence is a wound that will never heal. We still grieve with an intensity words can barely capture, and we forever wish things could have been different, that he could have grown, laughed, and lived the life he so deserved. Instead, we were left with only memories, because those we trusted failed him so utterly.
Yet from this unbearable loss, Oliver’s light has not gone out. Through the love and kindness of so many of you, his memory lives on in the work of our charity. Together, we have placed free LifeVac anti-choking devices in childcare settings across the United Kingdom. This legacy, Oliver’s legacy, is saving lives. For that, we thank every single person who has stood beside us, supported us, and believed in this mission.
If you can support Oliver's legacy with a small contribution please do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/lifevacuk
We will not stop. Not until every single nursery, preschool and childminder in the UK has a LifeVac device and no family has to endure what we endure every day. Oliver’s memory guides us, strengthens us, and reminds us of why we must keep going.
Forever loved. Forever missed. Forever Oliver.
