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Death of ex-Northcliffe trainer sparks detector campaign

A regional daily has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning after the death of a former Northcliffe training advisor.

The Grimsby Telegraph has teamed up with a local charity to give away free CO detectors after the death of 59-year-old Graham Beesley, left, last month.

Graham, who worked at Northcliffe Media for 35 years, was found dead at his home last month and an inquest heard he died after inhaling a high level of carbon monoxide from a faulty wood burner.

In a separate development, the family of a young former regional press journalist who also died from CO poisoning have made a short film to warn the public about the ‘silent killer.’

Until his retirement two years ago, Graham was responsible for management and leadership training at Northcliffe centres across the country and was based mainly at Grimsby.

The campaign to provide free carbon monoxide detectors has been organised by one of Graham’s friends, Dave Harrison of Humberston Lions, who has teamed up with the paper for it.

He said: “We want to work with the Grimsby Telegraph and keep the campaign going for as long as possible. Not only we will be raising money for detectors but we will arrange for them to be fitted. It is also about educating people about the need for them.

“I was a friend of Graham’s and I would like to do this in his memory. He was a great guy and it is a terrible tragedy. If we can save one life in the next few years, it will have been worthwhile.”

Dave has enlisted the support of Garry Lewis, the director of Your Local Tradesmen, who has pledged to supply and fit the detectors.

So far, more than 300 carbon monoxide detectors have been fitted or ordered by families in response to the campaign and Graham’s mother Joan has also backed the drive.

Telegraph editor Michelle Lalor said: “Graham was very fondly regarded by all his former colleagues within Northcliffe Media and will be missed by all who knew him.

“If other lives can be saved as a result of publicity surrounding this very sad event then something positive will have come out of his death – that is what he would have wanted.”

Meanwhile the family of former Watford Observer reporter Katie Haines has made a film about the dangers of carbon monoxide.

Katie, who went on to work for the Daily Express before joining Oxford University as a press officer, died two months after her wedding after being engulfed by a cloud of the odourless gas in her bathroom.

Katie’s family and friends subsequently founded the Katie Haines Memorial Trust which this week released a short film which urges householders to install the potentially life-saving detectors.

The hard-hitting advert, posted on Youtube and the trust’s website, follows a little girl as she helps her father to ‘childproof’ their house and car. But the one thing they forget is a CO detector – with tragic consequences.

Katie’s mother Avril Samuel said:  “People think they are doing everything they can to keep their family safe but they don’t do anything about carbon monoxide.

“You see adverts on TV about smoke alarms and even level crossings, but nothing about carbon dioxide. That’s why we did this.”