Kent Morning Show presenters were joined by Lisa Cook, the daughter of a woman who was dying from cancer and had her painkillers stolen by a carer in Maidstone.
Lisa Cook's mum Marion passed away before the sentencing of Lauren Browning - who pleaded guilty to theft. She was handed a 12-month community order.
Lisa Cook's mum Marion passed away before the sentencing of Lauren Browning - who pleaded guilty to theft. She was handed a 12-month community order.
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00:00Take us through the story. It was actually yourself who suspected that your mother's
00:04painkillers were being stolen. At what point did you go to the care agency that was looking after
00:09her? We first went to the care agency when there was, I definitely had found that a bottle of some
00:16oral drugs had gone missing. And I flagged it up with the care agency to start with, just to say
00:22that this has happened. I mean, obviously, I didn't have proof, you know, I didn't have
00:26photographic evidence or anything, but I realised that something was definitely wrong.
00:30Now, how shocked are you at the outcome that she's actually avoided a prison sentence?
00:36To be fair, I think at the very outset, I don't think myself or my mum thought that she would
00:41get a prison sentence. And actually, I think there's been quite a lot of studies saying
00:45that women don't necessarily benefit as such from it. And I also think that actually,
00:53it wouldn't have done anything. Just to be put in prison probably wouldn't have done anything.
00:56I think that the judge has gone down the right avenue to try and help rehabilitate this person,
01:01to try and give them a chance to turn their life around. So yes, I suppose there's an element in
01:07inside everybody would go, you want them to pay for what they've done. But I think with what she's
01:12been asked to achieve over the next 12 months, that's quite a lot of soul searching and quite
01:17a lot of thinking that she has to do in order to pass all the sort of levels that they've put in
01:25place. And of course, all of this has been quite a lengthy process for you and your family. And
01:31of course, your mum did pass away during that time before the sentencing. We're of course,
01:35very sorry to hear that. Tell us what this whole situation has been like.
01:41I mean, it was very stressful. I think the problem is that at a time that was already
01:45very stressful, it became more stressful because of this. There was lots of doubt on my side
01:52and this is, I think, the worst part of it. You kind of go, oh, did I order that? Did I
01:56write that down? Did I give the right dose to my mum? None of us are trained pharmacists.
02:02So you're dealing with very heavy duty drugs that need to be given at certain times of the day.
02:07And so there's always that element of doubt in your head thinking that you've done it wrong.
02:11So there was a sense of relief, I suppose, weirdly, that actually it wasn't us, that we
02:18actually were doing what we were meant to be doing and giving mum the best care that we could give
02:22her. But yes, it was very stressful at a time where you don't really need that sort of stress.
02:28What would you like to see change to avoid families and to avoid people like yourself
02:32going through a similar sort of thing as well? What sort of safeguards could be put in place?
02:38I mean, as far as I'm aware at the moment, there are safeguards in place that anybody who works
02:42with children or vulnerable adults in a sort of care situation should have a DBS check,
02:49which is a disclosure check to make sure that they've got no criminal records, et cetera.
02:53But I think the problem being that what I think can happen is that people can actually
02:59be maybe suspected of this. But if they leave that employer without any checks being made or
03:06convictions being made, then they can still apply elsewhere. I mean, obviously,
03:10in this country, you can't give a bad reference. So I think that we need to maybe look at things
03:15like that. But I also think that we need to look at just the way in which we have eroded all of
03:21our services in this country at the moment. And if people have got mental health issues or they've
03:26got addiction issues, where do they actually go to get help? It can take three weeks to get a
03:30doctor's appointment. There are no youth services anymore. There's very little mental health
03:35services. You go to an A&E, it can take you 12 hours to see somebody. And that's literally just
03:40putting a Band-Aid on the problem. So I think it has to be twofold. I think maybe we need to look at
03:45care and also give carers the due that they actually should get. These guys are so important
03:51to help people out in the community look after their parents, look after their loved ones.
03:57Not everybody wants to go to a hospice or a care home. Not everybody can afford to do that.
04:01So we need to look at ways in which you protect the people. We desperately need good carers in
04:07this country and we need to respect those people as well. But we also need to look at what we're
04:12doing out in the community and how we can help everybody who needs help, not just the vulnerable
04:17like my mum. I mean, as far as I'm aware, I feel there's more than one victim in this case,
04:23definitely. And we were looking at some lovely pictures of your mum there. I was wondering if
04:27you could just share a little bit about what she was like, because she was very independent,
04:31as I understand. She chose to stay at home rather than going into a hospice, as you mentioned.
04:38Yeah, I mean, mum eventually went into hospice for sort of the last week,
04:41five days of her life. But she wanted to stay at home. She liked her home. She worked hard
04:46to get it. She was an independent person. She did love life. She had lots of very nice friends.
04:52She used to exercise three times a week. She used to work at the Grangemore Hotel.
04:56She was there for something like 37 years. And she loved life. She was very proper. She
05:03loved her handbag. She loved her shoes. She liked to have nice things. So she worked very,
05:08very hard to get what she had. And, you know, that was it. That was mum. She had a great sense
05:14of humour. She was quite strict sometimes. But she was a very lovely, loving mother,
05:20you know. Couldn't ask for anybody else. And I'm looking at your story at The Read on Kent
05:25Online, of course, on the front page of Kent Online today. Actually, a quote from yourself,
05:30you said, it's too early to say if I forgive Laura and much of what you were saying to us before.
05:36But one day I will forgive. I wondered, where are you with that now?
05:40I mean, I think although it was, you know, it's, I think the court case is a little bit too close
05:46in my mind at the moment. But I mean, at the end of the day, she self-medicated for an addiction.
05:53You know, that's what she did. She found a route in which she could self-medicate for an addiction.
05:57I think we have to have compassion on that. So I hope that I will have forgiveness, because also
06:02you can't let these things just sit and fester within you. You've got to let them go at the
06:06end of the day. You've got to find a resolve. Otherwise, it will make me a very angry person,
06:11and I don't want to be angry. And just lastly, what's your advice to other families as well?
06:17I think go with your gut instinct. I think it's something that we're losing.
06:22Go with your gut instinct. If it doesn't feel right, then perhaps it isn't. And you really do
06:27need to just, I mean, I became meticulous in writing things down. I had a calendar. I had a
06:31diary. I made notes. I used to stop, take the drugs every week. Once I realized things were
06:37starting to go missing, I used to stop, take the drugs. And obviously, I couldn't be 100%.
06:42I wasn't there at some points 100% of the time. Towards the end of mum's life, obviously,
06:47I was there a lot more. But it's just really important to go with your gut instinct. And
06:52if it doesn't feel right, you don't have to make a complaint. What I did to start with was just
06:56flag it up with a care company saying, I think something is wrong here. Something is amiss.
07:01And because of that, they could then investigate their end. And then we had the conclusion that
07:05we had.