'I just wanted to clean up my dying son after crash'

5 hours ago

Becky Measures,BBC Radio Derbyand

Samantha Noble,East Midlands

Etienne, who preferred to be known as Justin, died after his car left the road near Dove Holes in Derbyshire in the early hours of 28 June 2020

Steph Alger A photograph Justin smiling with his fingers held to his mouth. — Etienne, who preferred to be known as Justin, died after his car left the road near Dove Holes in Derbyshire in the early hours of 28 June 2020

On the night Steph Alger was in hospital waiting for her son to take his last breaths following a crash, she said she just wanted to clean him up and care for him, but the resources were not available.

"He was my baby, he was 18, but he was still my baby," she said.

Since the death of Etienne, who preferred to be known as Justin, whose car left the road near Dove Holes, Derbyshire, in June 2020, while he was driving over the speed limit, her family started a charity providing specially designed bathing packs on critical care wards.

Steph has also been campaigning for safer driving, and police are using a video she recorded about the impact of Justin's death to send to drivers caught speeding.

Steph said the feedback about the bathing boxes had been amazing

Steph Alger A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and minimal make-up looking into the camera. — Steph said the feedback about the bathing boxes had been amazing

At the time of the crash, Justin was driving at 66mph in wet conditions and, unbeknown to him, had a nail in his tyre.

Steph said he suffered a catastrophic brain injury after his car flipped off the edge of an embankment and hit a stone wall at the bottom.

She said that, in hospital, the doctors turned off the machines.

"We witnessed, for two hours, him dying in front of us, which no parent should have to go through."

Steph added: "I wanted to wipe his hands, his face and his feet, and take the blood from him, and just care for him as you want to with your loved one or your child."

She said as the resources were not available in the hospital for her family, they wanted to create a nice box for other families.

The bathing kits include a comb, wooden bowl and soap

Just.Bathe Contents of a bathing kit including a comb, wooden bowl, and soap. — The bathing kits include a comb, wooden bowl and soap

Steph said their charity, Just.Bathe, has delivered 140 boxes to 14 hospitals so far, and plan to get the boxes into all adult critical care wards, which take young people 16 plus, in the UK in the coming few years.

"It doesn't matter how old your child is, whether they are 18 or 40, if you're a parent, they're your baby."

Just.Bathe was officially registered and started delivering in June 2025, but Steph said their family first self-funded the project and started putting the boxes together in 2022.

"It's just so that parents facing the same thing that we did, in the same horrendous situation, aren't left wanting the resources.

"It gives them something meaningful to do, something to look back on that they did for their child."

Steph said the "Just" in the charity's title was used as it was an abbreviation of Justin

Just.Bathe Steph Alger with hospital staff holding boxes of the bathing kits. — Steph said the "Just" in the charity's title was used as it was an abbreviation of Justin

Steph is also continuing to campaign against speeding.

In 2024, she backed Derbyshire Police's Just A Second campaign, which warned drivers against speeding and becoming distracted behind the wheel.

Now she has partnered with the force's Community Speed Watch scheme, and drivers caught going too fast will receive a letter, which will include a QR code that links to a video of Steph's story.

Derbyshire Police said when drivers were recently asked about it, 91% of those who had viewed the video agreed it made them want to reduce their speed.