A WICKLOW COUPLE have launched a campaign in memory of their daughter to raise awareness of the importance of CPR and first aid.

Lisa and Matt Boland lost their two-year-old daughter, Lauren, after she choked on a pea while at creche on 18 January 2023. Her death has led them to launch a campaign to bring attention to importance of having life-saving first-aid skills.

In an interview with the parents, which was broadcast by RTÉ Radio One’s Ray D’Arcy Show this afternoon, Lisa and Matt shared the details around the day that they lost their daughter Lauren.

Lisa and Matt were alerted by the creche in Co Wicklow on the afternoon of 18 January 2023 that their child had choked on a pea. Lisa said that a number of volunteer first responders from the community attended the scene on the day.

Lauren was then brought to Crumlin Hospital in Dublin by paramedics, where doctors worked to keep her heart beating but she never regained consciousness.

Lisa said that she hopes that most parents will “never have to see” the inside of the PICU ward in Crumlin Hospital. Matt said that the couple stayed at the hospital for hours waiting on updates from doctors, who were clear with them that Lauren was not well.

Lauren died following a cardiac arrest the day after she arrived at hospital. An inquest this month returned a verdict of death by misadventure and a coroner called for consideration to be given for mandatory defibrillators to be located at childcare facilities.

Lisa, describing her daughter, said:

“She was a very, happy, healthy, beautiful little girl with blonde, curly hair, big blue eyes and a very hearty, contagious laugh. She just loved life and she loved people.”

She added: “She was just that really stereotypical girl – loved her dolls and her babies, which just makes me so sad that she never got to meet her baby brother, Harry. I feel like they were robbed of that experience.”

“She would’ve been like his Mum,” Lisa added.

Matt described Lauren as the “absolute boss of the house.”

“Even though she was the baby, you couldn’t give out to Lauren. If you gave out to her you’d end up apologising to her for giving out, and she’d be like ‘Alright, that’s better.”

Lauren loved dancing, socialising and the movie Frozen, her parents said. She also described her brother Jack, who was five years old at the time of her death, as her best friend.

Learn for Lauren

The couple were inspired to launch Learn for Lauren, an awareness campaign around the importance of having first aid and CPR skills, after taking lessons by the course provider First Aid For Everyone shortly after the birth of their second son last year.

“It is so important. Every parent would want to help in that situation, every person would want to help a child and know what to do. And some of the skills are so basic, and some of the tips [the course gives] are so basic,” Lisa said.

The couple have partnered with First Aid For Everyone and other parents with a following online to share a message around the importance of having first-aid and CPR skills and spread awareness on choking.

Lisa and Matt share resources on their Instagram page, @learn_for_lauren, and have also established a fund in which every euro will go towards providing life-saving education, initiatives and resources to their local community and others.