The ashes of Christopher Spencer were released last night at sunset to mark the one-year anniversary of his death.

His friends and family met at his favourite beach at 6pm for a ceremony officiated by the Rt Rev Nicholas Dill, Bishop of Bermuda.

Speaking beforehand, Mr Spencer’s mother Lynn told The Royal Gazette: “The beach is where he took his girlfriend Sarah [Delgross] on their first date. His sister Amanda will be there and all his friends and we are going to release wish lanterns. It’s at sunset, which is exactly the time he died.”

Mr Spencer, 25, a former reporter at the Mid-Ocean News and The Royal Gazette, suffered depression from a young age and was a heroin addict who battled to break the habit.

Ms Spencer said she was still utterly struggling to come to terms with his death.

“When a parent loses their child it is very painful and heartbreaking. When you add drug addiction to that scenario the grief becomes a little more complicated.

“You live on the edge every day your child is alive; you want to believe there is hope; a sudden death has not been planned for.

“The complication comes with the stereotyping and stigma that addicts carry with them. Healing from this is a slow process.

“Having someone that you can talk to without judgement is key to healing. I am very lucky to have support.”

Though she is still waiting for the authorities to determine exactly how her son died (see separate story), Ms Spencer felt the time was right to release the ashes.

“I just thought that we would have the coroner’s report by now and have everything,” she said.

“I was hoping to have had the toxicology report. That’s basically why they haven’t been released earlier. I just decided we can’t wait any longer. For myself and everybody, it’s part of what we need to do.”

She recalled how on the day Christopher died, he walked past her bedroom and she asked him a question.

“He said ‘I’ll give that [the answer] to you in a few minutes’. I was on the phone and then I thought let me just check on him. He was in there at least half an hour before I checked on him. There was no answer, no answer.

“That wasn’t unusual because when you are using heroin you do zone out and fall asleep and basically become unconscious.

“I called my sister and said ‘he’s not answering the door. I don’t want to call 911 if it’s a false alarm. He’ll kill me’.

“She said ‘call them’ and I did and it wasn’t a false alarm.”

The mother-of-two has many questions she wants to ask the ambulance crew who attended their home and the police officers investigating his death — but so far she hasn’t been told if an inquest will take place.

Ms Spencer claimed the ambulance initially attended the wrong address, taking ten minutes to get to the correct property.

Once it arrived, the crew told her they could not break down the bedroom door and would have to wait for police. A police officer arrived immediately afterwards and got into the room.

Ms Spencer said the EMTs (emergency medical technicians) put her son on the bed to try to recover him and she wants to know if it would have been better to put him on the floor.

She also wants to find out if the potentially life-saving opiate antidote Narcan was used, either by the EMTs or in the emergency room, but has yet to be informed by King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

“I don’t know if anything would have made a difference,” she said. “It’s always ‘what if?’”

A Bermuda Hospitals Board spokeswoman said: “BHB extends its sincere condolences to Mr Spencer’s family and loved ones. Ambulances and the emergency department have Narcan available at all times.

“Although BHB is unable to provide details about an individual’s medical care publicly, Mr Spencer’s mother can contact our Quality and Risk Department for information.

“There are twelve basic EMTs and ten EMT-Intermediates (EMT-I’s) on full-time staff and EMT-I’s can administer Narcan. BHB has one trained paramedic but due to current legislation he cannot practice as a paramedic.”

There was no response to a further question about whether EMT-I’s are sent to every emergency.

Following this newspaper’s inquiries, Ms Spencer has set up a meeting with the Quality and Risk Department next month.