On 13th January 2011, our lives were changed forever. My lovely son Alex passed away. Alex was 3 weeks off his nineteenth birthday.
He was a typical teenage lad, liked nights out with his friends and spent a lot of time with his girlfriend of almost 3 years, Jodie.
He had been to work that day and the gym before meeting up with Jodie and they spent the night at our house – which was very unusual as Jodie didn’t normally stop on a work night. They went to bed after watching TV.
I was on a sleep-in at work. I got a phone call at 2.40am from Jodie. I could hear Alex in the background and it sounded like he was violently retching – this turned out to be a fit. After a few words with Jodie I asked her to phone 999 and with instructions from the operator she attempted CPR.
I got cover at work and got home as quickly as I could. There was an ambulance outside with Alex in it and 2 or 3 policemen in our house. One of my other sons, Antony, turned up at the house and Jodie and myself went to the hospital.
On the way there I just knew he had died but kept telling myself not to be stupid, he was a fit, healthy young man. Not long after, although it seemed an eternity, the nurse and doctor came to tell us they had not been able to revive him.
What amazed all the family was the amount of Facebook messages and the amount of people who loved and cared for him. This became even more apparent at a candlelit vigil his sister Kelly organised – where over 100 people turned up at relatively short notice – and then at his funeral and celebration of life party. Alex was such a character and so full of life that we thought it fitting to celebrate his life, so we asked for people not to wear all black but to wear bright colours or football and rugby shirts. His brother Neil, sister Kelly and cousin Emma did talks about him rather than a eulogy. Parts of this were very colourful and Neil described him as a loveable rogue!
His inquest was held 6 months later and the post mortem showed the left ventricle had completely died, and on the death certificate it basically said he had died of myocardial infarction. Apparently he had had a heart attack a few days earlier and the heart was showing signs of healing itself. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system. His uncle died of a heart attack in the 70’s aged 32 and his cousin 12 days after Alex.
It is a year tomorrow since we lost him and the pain does not go away. Our funny lad who made us laugh so much is sorely missed.
Sarah Jones
