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Article Mum’s Chilling Warning After 11-Year-Old Son Dies Trying TikTok Trend

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A heartbroken mum has pleaded with other parents to talk to their children about a social media craze that cost her 11-year-old son his life.

Tommie-Lee Gracie Billington, 11, from Lancaster, UK suffered a suspected cardiac arrest earlier this month, while at a sleepover at a friend’s house.

Tommie-Lee Gracie Billington

 

His family say he took part in a trend called ‘chroming’, which includes inhaling toxic chemicals from paint, deodorant cans or petrol. Also known as ‘huffing’, the chemicals give a short-term high, but can also cause hallucinations, nausea, heart attack or suffocation.

Tommie-Lee’s mum Sherri has urged other parents to ‘hide all deodorants’ from their children.

“This cost my son his life from trying something other kids are doing they are using this and breathing them in to try get a buzz!” she wrote in a Facebook post.

“It is beyond me why anyone would even try this! It’s so dangerous! Tommie had stayed over at a friends and was inhaling this with his friend which cost him his poor young life. Please talk to your children about the consequences of this I have no idea how this even came about for children to try!”

His grandmother reportedly shared a version of events on social media, saying:

“He died instantly after a sleepover at a friend’s house. The boys had tried the TikTok craze ‘chroming’. Tommie-Lee went into cardiac arrest immediately and died right there and then. The hospital did everything to try and bring him back but nothing worked. He was gone.”

Tommie-Lee Gracie Billington

TikTok has banned searches of the term ‘chroming challenge’, but parents are still being encouraged to monitor their children’s social media use.

Lancashire Police said Tommie-Lee’s death is being treated as unexplained.

 

 

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  • Also, chroming has been around a long time – it’s not a new thing. I remember my own mother warning me about how dangerous it is in the 90’s!

    Reply

  • This is so awful, my heart breaks for the parents. We shouldn’t have to ‘hide all deodorants’ from our children though – we have to educate them on the dangers so that they understand and make the choice to not do these things. Just because you hide things from them in your home doesn’t mean they won’t find them somewhere else, or a friend won’t supply them with it!

    Reply

  • Chroming has been a problem for years.

    Reply

  • What a terrible waste of a young life. It’s a tragedy that should never have happened.

    Reply

  • This is heartbreaking for the family and such a tragic loss for them.

    Reply

  • This is very sad. What a devastating experience for not only the parents, but the friend’s parents as well.

    • My heart goes out to both too, very traumatic and heartbreaking ! Imagine you have a friend of your child sleeping over and it dies at your house !

    Reply

  • Unfortunately, this is not a new thing, they’ve just given it a new name. Now that there are things like Tik Tok around these things are becoming more widely spread.

    Reply

  • Certainly not a modern problem but yes, let’s keep the conversations going. No one should lose a child.

    Reply

  • Heartbreaking. Unfortunately “Chroming” has been around long before TiK ToK. I remember walking past kids in the late 80’s “Chroming” and they would have been around 12 years. Its not just social media that influence kids, other kids do.

    Reply

  • Shocking story for the parents. This is but a historical story of where a child takes on a dare and dies sad as it is its very hard to stop as there will always be a child that takes that risk not matter the circumstances .What do you do .Care for them and give them the best help you always can

    Reply

  • This hurts my heart so much. Kids that young on TikTok. These ridiculous challenges. I hate what this is and what it’s doing to innocent children and families. PEOPLE ARE DYING.

    Reply

  • So heartbreaking ! My heart goes out to te family and also to the family and friend he was stying over with.
    Peer pressure is a huge thing. Some teenagers are more sensible for this and like to act cool and brave in order to get their friends admiration and sense of belonging.
    We should educate our kids about the dangers and teach them that it’s brave to say no to certain things

    Reply

  • How very heartbreaking. It’s so scary raising kids in this age of technology, feels so much harder to protect them.

    • An enormous amount of vigilance and education is needed due to the use of technology.

    Reply

  • Shocking outcome of a fun night stayover. Please educate your children and try to instil in them not to be silly enough to fall for peer pressure on something as dangerous as this. Sympathy to the family.

    Reply

  • TikTok should have stricter controls in place and remove things like this as soon as they’re posted.

    Reply
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