When Jamie and Carly Dunbar celebrated their son Joshua’s birthday on April 27, 2024, they had no idea it would be the last day they’d see him alive. The morning started out like a birthday morning should — a family party with presents. But it ended with unspeakable tragedy when a typical birthday party fixture led to Joshua’s death. Hours after buying him a specialty balloon, they found their son unconscious in his bed. The exact details of how he died will forever remain a mystery, but he definitely suffocated. Now, the couple are using their son’s story to try to make significant change.
The parents are speaking publicly for the first time.
Jamie and Carly Dunbar appeared on the British talk show This Morning on May 20, 2026, to discuss the day their son died. They explained that after celebrating Joshua’s birthday that morning, they took him to get a special balloon in the shape of an 8.
After they got home, he took the balloon up to his room for a little “quiet time,” Jamie Dunbar shared. When his mom went to Joshua’s room for a “little chat” with him, he was sitting on his bed with the balloon and calmly watching TV.
“I told him his dad would be up, and we’re going to put all his presents away. And then his dad came up literally minutes later,” she told the show hosts, according to The Mirror.
“At first, I’d seen the balloon half deflated,” Jamie Dunbar said of walking into Joshua’s room. “It took me a split second to realize Joshua was lying down with the balloon over his head. So I had to get him off his bed and physically rip the balloon off him.”
Carly Dunbar thought back to that day, remembering the “raw” feeling of hearing her husband screaming.
“I just, you know, when you have that feeling as a parent. And I just feel that that scream will never leave me,” she told the hosts. “And I’ve run in the bedroom, and I’ve just seen Joshua quite, well, lifeless. I’ve just panicked and ran outside, screaming at the neighbors for help.”
Jamie did CPR on their son until the paramedics came.
“So the ambulance paramedics came in and worked on Joshua in the house. Then the air ambulance came,” Carly Dunbar shared, per The Mirror. They added that because of his state, they had to go the fastest route.
“So it was like a big rush of all doctors and nurses, and they were all around his bed trying to do CPR, and I’m trying to bring him back. They were amazing, they tried their best, but we just had to say goodbye to him.”
After the boy was taken to the hospital, a post-mortem examination was performed, The Mirror reported. Joshua’s cause of death was “consistent with asphyxia involving a helium balloon.”
The couple admitted they’re still not entirely sure how their son died, but they do have a theory.
“So we don’t know exactly how the balloon has managed to get over his head, but from the manner where he was sitting in his room, he was nice and calm. It was just next to him,” Carly Dunbar explained to the show, per People.
“It sort of came to the conclusion that he…bit it…sort of thing. And that’s when the helium replaced the oxygen. And then knocked him deeply unconscious, which then allowed the foil balloon to cover his head,” she added.
Jamie and Carly Dunbar are now advocates for banning the sale of helium balloons.
The couple is aware that there may never be a ban, but that won’t stop their fight.
“We just want to get it out there, the message, the awareness, even if that doesn’t happen, to make people aware that the dangers of them. Because we never knew,” Jamie said on This Morning. “We’d always bought balloons for our other children’s birthdays before.”
On May 8, Carly launched a petition to get the UK Parliament to take action against the sale of helium balloons.
“These balloons are not required to come with warnings and can be a silent killer. I believe changing the law could save lives,” she wrote in the petition.
“I believe had there been regulations and awareness raised on the dangers of these balloons my son’s death may have possibly been prevented. I ask for a ban after my son’s death, to prevent another child losing their life due to a tragedy that could be prevented with a ban on sales. I call for Parliament to take immediate action and prevent further deaths happening. One life taken is one too many.”
So far, the petition has more than 3,000 signatures. If it reaches 10,000 signatures, the government will respond to it.
