Thank You For Your Love and Support

Jamie Barrow’s mum Valerie has thanked islanders for their love and support after confirming he was the person found in the sea off the north of the island.

The 39-year-old had been missing for just under two weeks and is believed to have been recovered from the sea this weekend by the RNLI.

In a post, Valerie Nelson thanked the police, the search teams, islanders and people from further afield for their attempts to find Jamie and for the support they have given her and her family.

She said: ‘After taking a couple of days to digest our tragic news and to try and respond personally to the 100’s of messages I’ve had, I would now like to thank the residents of the Island and further afield for their love help and outstanding support given to me and my family during the last fortnight. The care and attention given by Police across the Island and especially Ramsey Police Station was remarkable and I would personally like to thank all the officers involved but special thanks to Neil Edwards who was and still is our Family Liason Officer who was assigned by Sgt Steve Gadman who was my initial contact and remained throughout, the Superintendent who walked miles to Laxey and back, also to Pam who coordinated all of the services and agencies in the search for my son. This includes The Lifeboat’s search & rescue, the dog search teams, the Civil Defence, the fire and rescue service, the divers and drone searchers and I’m sure a lot more I’ve to find out about and will.

‘I would like to thank the general public for taking this tragic event into their hearts and sending us messages of love and support. This Island community stands together in such times and is overwhelming.

‘With regard to my beautiful son who I will not see again in this lifetime at least, I hold him dear to my heart and always will. I cried for days and will cry often but I know my boy would not wish that so I will move on with the strength of knowing that he made his own decision and I totally respect that. In his 40th year he wanted to move on having experienced a mental health problem none of us would wish for.

‘He was a true Christian, with Buddhist views and read the bible and the scripts often to sooth his troubled soul. I know now that he had experienced enough and wanted to be reborn to a better life having helped as many people in this lifetime as he could, to the detriment of his own. A kinder and more generous person you could not find. He wanted to save the World but realised he could not do this single handed . I wish him well on his continued spiritual journey and am comforted in the fact that we will meet again in another life.

‘Thanks to my beautiful supportive family and friends, you know who you are and to the Spanish side who have suffered their own tragic recent losses whilst supporting ours.

‘We love each and every one of you ‘