A BRAVE mum has revealed the tragic moment her son didn’t wake up just weeks before he should have turned five.

Ann Dolan, 51, is remembering little Andrew Clark on what would have been his 28th birthday.

The youngster suffered from cerebral palsy while living with his mum in Netherthird and was very popular within his community.

They were constantly fundraising in support of Andrew to help him get the support he needed like special equipment.

The funds even got him a walking frame which let him take a few steps on his own.

Now his mum Ann is speaking out about what it was like to lose him as a young single mother 25 years ago.

She said: “I went to wake him up one morning because he had a hospital appointment and he was just gone.

“He didn’t keep good health so the first three years of his life he was in and out of hospital a lot but he got an operation and was in better health after that.

“It was very sudden, I wasn’t expecting it at all.

“At the time I had Andrew I was a single parent and I met my now husband the year after he died and we went on to have two kids.

“My daughter was born about two and a half years after he died and then I had my son a couple years later.

“I wondered a few weeks ago I wonder if any of these old clippings would appear in the old files in the paper since they covered it at the time and then they did, I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing it.

“It was nice to see him, to be honest it hurts a bit even after all this time. The memories never really leave you.

“It would have been his birthday next week, it would have been his 28th birthday.

“I will go down to the cemetery with flowers, it’s been so long ago but in ways it doesn’t feel like that at all.

“I was very lucky a lot of support through my parents and family and his care workers and doctors.

“I don’t know how I got through it. It took me a long time the first six months I would probably say doesn’t exist anymore to me.

“Between family and close friends and neighbours they really helped. It was hard, I mean it really still is hard.

“My kids, althoughthey never met him, they know all about him and I have a memory box and all his cards, his wee firsts, his hair and different things like that to keep his memory alive.”

“You learn to live with it and just take baby steps, each day is different.”