One Padre Island mother, Fay Martin, lost her son Ryan Malcolm to fentanyl poisoning on May 8, 2021. Since then, she has been a big advocate for fentanyl poisoning and overdose awareness across the state of Texas. She is the South Texas Area Director of the Texas Against Fentanyl (TxAF) nonprofit organization. Because of her position, she was invited by Senator John Cornyn to attend the inauguration of President Trump on January 20th in Washington, D.C.
“In 2021, he got fentanyl sold to him in the form of Xanax, and it ended up taking his life," Martin said.
Unfortunately, Martin is not alone in her sorrow of losing a child to fentanyl.
“This is increasingly becoming the number one killer of adolescents 14 to 18 years old," Martin said. “And that’s really serious. These are young kids that their parents are finding them dead in their bed. And the parents don’t even know these conversations to have with these kids.”
Martin is taking that conversation to Capitol Hill on presidential inauguration day.
“We were invited by Senator John Cornyn’s office. We got eight tickets to the inauguration," Martin said.
Martin and some other Texas parents who have lost children to fentanyl, wanted to do something special to honor their sons on a national platform at the inauguration.
“We just came up with this last-minute idea to do posters so that we could hold them at the inauguration as awareness," Martin said.
But, they knew they would not be able to pull this off on such short notice by themselves. That's where Isle Mail and More on Padre Island comes in.
“It makes me very proud to know that my company is able to step in and help her out, and it may just be a small part, but it makes me feel really proud," John Cox, a customer service representative from Isle Mail and More, said.
The staff at Isle Mail and More rushed the poster order for Fay, and completed it within two days of her request. They made it a priority and gave her a good price deal so that she and the other parents would be able to bring posters of their children that they've lost to fentanyl to the inauguration. The order hit home for John Cox.
“As an EMT in Georgia, I understand completely, the overdose problem with fentanyl, and that has a special place in my heart and I was really glad that we were able to be able to help her out," Cox said.
Fay and others will be able to honor their son’s memories at the presidential inauguration, all thanks to Isle Mail and More.
“We’re doing that for their memory, so that other kids, we can’t save our kids anymore, but we can save other kids," Martin said.
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