Sally Nugent became visibly emotional on Monday’s BBC Breakfast as she interviewed a grieving mother about her son’s tragic death.
Ellen Roome MBE lost her 14-year-old son Jools back in 2022 after he took part in an online challenge that went wrong.
A narrative verdict was ruled at the inquest, but despite this, his parents could still not gain access to his social media accounts to find out exactly what happened to him.
In a bid to make a change, Ellen later travelled to New York to confront the social media companies that prevented her from getting answers and this journey was featured on the programme in a prerecorded segment.
Now, Jools’ law is being introduced to prevent other parents from suffering the same problem, with the mum bravely admitting that she ‘wanted to make something positive out of the loss of Jools’ life.’
Clearly affected by her work, an emotional Sally said ‘You did it’, prompting Ellen to admit, ‘You’re crying, I thought I’d cry.’
Sally Nugent became visibly emotional on Monday’s BBC Breakfast as she interviewed a grieving mother about her son’s tragic death
Ellen Roome MBE lost her 14-year-old son Jools back in 2022 after he took part in an online challenge that went wrong – and now she’s changed the law to help other parents in similar situations get timely answers
Clearly affected by her work, an emotional Sally said ‘You did it’, prompting Ellen to admit, ‘You’re crying, I thought I’d cry’
The heartbroken mum admitted: ‘It’s just really hard, because this little boy should be sat here right now with two loving parents and family, it’s not just us, his family, grandparents, uncles, brothers, sisters, his friends, it’s not just us who lost him.’
‘I’ve tried for so long to understand why my special boy isn’t here, and I’m desperate to understand that.’
Ellen said that even though the new law has been passed, she still doesn’t know what happened to her son.
She added: ‘I’m just a mum that stood up and said, this is wrong, and I’ve repeated my story over and over.
‘I just tried to use Jools’ story to make a difference, and make something positive out of it.’
Clearly affected by the brave guest’s story, Sally described her as ‘so much more than a mum’.
She noted: ‘You’ve spoken to people in power, you’ve spoken about your son at every opportunity.’
Admitting that she struggled to sleep ahead of the interview on Monday, Ellen said: ‘Last night, I couldn’t sleep, I was just crying because Jools would be so proud.’
In a bid to make a change, Ellen actually travelled to New York to confront the social media companies who prevented her from getting answers about her son’s death
Ellen said that her next mission is to find out exactly what happened to her late son
Ellen continued: ‘I’m not doing it for proudness or gratification, I was just so determined that I don’t want anybody to feel the pain that I felt.
‘So I set about with two things, and I now need to find answers for Jools, that’s my next mission and I’m not stopping.’
The mum vowed to ‘try everything’ in her ongoing quest to find out what exactly happened to her son.
She said: ‘I’m not stopping, there’s no way I’m stopping. There’s so much more we’ve got to achieve.
‘I don’t know what my next steps are going forward with regards to changing the law, but I am backing all of those people that want to make it safer for children.
‘Safeguarding is a number one priority and we 100% need to do more, and I’ll be there every step of the way.’
Breakfast airs daily on BBC One from 6am and is available to stream on iPlayer.
