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Friends and family rallied round to help 53 year-old Teresa Charlton's only son realise his dream to travel after he died too young. Here she tells PAT NURSE of the terrible tragedy that took her son's life and why she now plans to follow in his footsteps around the world.
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As soon as I walked in through the door at 4pm, the sight of my son Sean's trainers betrayed the fact he hadn't gone to work as he promised he would.

"Sean," I shouted dismayed. I began to climb the stairs to his room. "Why are you still here?"

His dad, Tim (59), called home at lunchtime and Sean ran down the stairs to see him. Had he gone back to bed after his dad left?

I walked into his room. He looked to be sitting upright on his bed, asleep. But I felt sick with agony as I approached. His face was white, his lips were blue. My only son was dead. At just 19 years old, he'd hardly had time to live.

I moved around in a daze as police looked in his bedroom for clues as to why a fit, sporting, and happy young man should die so suddenly but there was no reason for it.

"The post mortem showed nothing abnormal," the coroner said when he phoned the next day. "it seems Sean simply sat down and died."

The inquest found that my son had died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. My daughter Leah read somewhere that it can be a hereditary condition. She barely slept for the next year even after having tests which gave her the all-clear.

I thought about all the things that Sean had wanted to do. It broke my heart to think he would never live his dreams now..

"When I grow up, Mum, I'm going to travel the world and then I'm going to live in Thailand. I think it's the most beautiful place on earth. I'm going to run my own beach caf one day," he'd said.

I soothed my grief by trying to imagine that Sean was dreaming of Thailand when he passed away. I couldn't bear the thought that he had died in pain but the coroner said pain would have woken him and he would still be here. He died in peace. I know that much.

Sean's funeral was crammed with so many mourners, at least 100 people had to listen from outside because there was no more room to get them in.

He was so popular at his school that a memorial was put up in his memory.

His friend Ian suggested taking some of Sean's ashes with him when he went on a planned three month-long trip to America, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. He'd wanted to travel with Sean one day and he wished he could have been with him. It was an excellent idea. I put some ashes in a little

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