Marking what should have been Poppy Reanne’s 31st birthday — and the law her story forced into being.

 

Yesterday should have been Poppy Reanne’s 31st birthday.

....And I missed it.

 

Not because I forgot...

 

But because when you live your life fighting for someone who should still be here, every day becomes their day.

 

Grief doesn’t circle dates. It lingers quietly in everything you do.

 

And maybe that’s what survival really looks like — a bit late, a bit broken, but still here, still fighting, still building what they should have had.

 

 

⚖️ Why Poppy’s Law Exists

In 2020, two care-experienced women — me and Poppy — were both fighting to survive.

I was trying to stay alive after a domestic-violence attack that should have been prevented.

Poppy was trying to stay alive inside a system that decided her protection was optional.

 

That decision wasn’t personal. It was written in law.

 

On 23 April 2020, while the country was in lockdown, the Government passed:

The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/445).

 

It sounded harmless.

Bureaucratic even.

But hidden in that legal jargon was something devastating — the suspension of 65 legal safeguards for children in care and care leavers.

 

Here’s what that really meant:

 

Social workers no longer had to visit children in care every six weeks.

 

Reviews could be postponed indefinitely.

 

Independent oversight — the checks and balances that stop abuse and neglect — were watered down.

 

And the duties owed to care leavers like Poppy could be paused, delayed, or ignored altogether.

 

Those words — “flexibilities” and “temporary relaxations” — became silent killers.

 

They meant no one had to check if you were okay anymore.

 

Poppy’s aftercare contact was suspended.

 

She didn’t stop needing help — the law just stopped requiring anyone to provide it.

 

By November 2020, she was gone.

 

And like too many others, her death was recorded as tragedy — not the predictable consequence of deregulation.

 

💜 What Poppy’s Law Demands

Poppy’s Law is the answer to that silence.

It is the line that says: Never again.

 

Because no child, and no care-experienced adult, should ever die because the law made them invisible.

 

Here’s what this law calls for:

 

1️⃣ Recognition in Death

Every coroner must record whether the deceased was care-experienced in suicide or sudden-death cases and report it to the ONS.

 

Because you can’t prevent what you refuse to count.

 

2️⃣ Protection in Life

Local authorities must hold legal suicide-prevention duties for care-experienced people up to age 35.

 

Because trauma doesn’t expire at 18.

 

3️⃣ Accountability in System

Independent national oversight must review every care-leaver death and publish findings publicly

 — no more internal cover-ups, no more closed doors.

 

4️⃣ Safeguards That Can’t Be Switched Off

The Government must never again use “emergency powers” to suspend protections for vulnerable children or care leavers.

 

No crisis justifies abandoning humanity.

 

🌿 What We’ve Done in Year One

In the first year of Poppy’s Law, we’ve worked with survivors, legal professionals, and policy experts to build real foundations for reform.

 

✅ Drafted the legislative proposal for Poppy’s Law, including the Coroners’ Amendment and Suicide Prevention Clauses.

 

✅ Completed the White Paper for ministerial review.

 

✅ Built a survivor-led policy board ensuring every clause of this law comes from lived experience, not bureaucracy.

 

✅ Created the national mortality-tracking model for ONS integration.

 

✅ Secured early cross-party discussions in preparation for parliamentary submission.

 

✅ Launched the Living Grief study to document the psychological toll of state abandonment.

 

✅ Raised public awareness through media, art, and testimony — because policy change starts with people listening.

 

This movement began as one name — Poppy’s — but now it carries the voices of hundreds who lived through similar silence.

 

🕯 The Truth About Missing Her Birthday

I missed her birthday by a day.

 

And maybe that sounds small, but it broke me.

 

Because the truth is — we shouldn’t have to mark these birthdays in memory posts.

 

We should be calling her to tell her we did it, that her name is on the paper, that her fight turned into law.

 

But she’s not here.

 

And that’s why this matters.

 

So no — this post isn’t late.

 

It’s right on time...

 

Because every word written in Poppy’s name is a promise that what happened to her won’t happen again.

 

💜 Happy Heavenly Birthday, Poppy.

You should be here.

 

And through Poppy’s Law — you always will be.

 

— Sarah Thompson

Founder, Project R | Reform in Action

 

✊ Sign · Share · Stand for Poppy’s Law

 

🔗 https://www.change.org/Poppys_Law

#PoppysLaw #ProjectR #CareExperiencedLivesMatter #ReformInAction #NeverAgain