I CAN SPEAK TO THE DEAD

Sunday Mirror, Mar 6, 2005 by EXCLUSIVE By DONNA CARTON

BEREAVED people from across Ireland are flocking to see a young woman who believes her baby has contacted her from beyond the grave.

Dawn Mitchell says she can receive messages from the dead, thanks to her infant son, Ben, who died at just four hours old.

The young mum claims Ben signalled to her just after his death, revealing "the fact of life after death".

Now people from all areas of the country visit her Derry home, hoping to contact their dead relatives, many of them babies and children.

A few months after Ben's death, Dawn was counselling a woman, when, she said, she was shocked to receive a message from the woman's dead uncle.

"I knew then I had a gift," she said.

Now Dawn - who is only 28 - has a thriving business as a medium and is working on a tribute CD to Ben, the proceeds of which she will give to children's charities.

She said: "When Ben made contact with me, it was comforting and I knew I'd do something in his memory.

"Recording the album of songs to raise money for charity is one part of that and developing the gift of mediumship, which I then knew I had, was the other part.

"Ben showed me I could be a medium. Before that I was spiritual but I was sceptical of such things.

"Now I realise it's a calling, a vocation. It chooses you. You don't choose it."

Ben was born on October 6, 2003, in Castlebar, Co Mayo, and died without warning four hours later of a heart condition.

Dawn said: "I was devastated. There was no hint he was ill. I couldn't believe it and went through all the grief and anger and asking why?

"I'm not a church-goer but I went up to the hospital chapel and felt incredibly sad and lost.

"Then, almost immediately, I felt a presence. I sensed it was Ben. He was saying goodbye.

"In the weeks after that there were lots of other unusual events - I could feel a presence or I would feel shivery for no obvious reason. Or rainbows would appear. All sorts of strange things.

"Then one day I was on the phone and I saw a cluster of lights, about 40 or 50 of them, just at my shoulder. They moved up into the air and I knew it was Ben.

"It wasn't spooky at all. It was very comforting."

Dawn, who is pregnant again, decided then her life would change direction. She trained in "Guided Self-Healing Therapy" which takes a holistic approach to counselling.

She said: "However, when I started practising I realised I had another gift, the gift to be a medium.

"I was treating a woman from Derry at my home in Ballintra, County Donegal and during the third session her uncle came through to me.

"I was totally comfortable with the experience and it felt like coming home. I knew then this was why Ben died, to allow me to do this and help others."

Dawn, a mother-of-two, began her practice in Donegal but has moved to Derry where she has built up a large following.

She said: "Word has got around and people have started coming to me to find answers and get messages from someone who has died.

"I get quite a lot of women who want to contact their children and that can be quite traumatic.

"I recently had one very moving experience where a woman's baby daughter made contact.

"I work every night now and it can be quite exhausting but it is very rewarding.

"It's amazing how quickly word gets about.

"I even had a letter from a woman in Spain the other day, asking for help.

"I am not trying to convert people or be evangelistic in any way.

"I am simply showing there is life after death and people are comforted by that.

"Generally people want to know if their loved one felt any pain, if he or she is at peace now and if the funeral arrange- ments were okay. That sort of thing.

"The spirit proves its presence by telling things the living person has done in the past few weeks.

"The angels teach me everything I know."

Dawn held a public medium event in January to raise money to record the CD she wants to sell for charity and is planning another one in April.

Dawn charges pounds 35 for a one-to-one session which can last about two hours.

"I'm not doing it for the money. That's why I don't charge a lot," she said.

"I charge enough to get by and pay the bills and the money I raise at public events is to get the CD made so I can raise money for charity in Ben's name because he made all this happen."