Parents mourn the sudden death of their baby

Deborah and Simon Boxall, of Downlands Avenue, Broadwater, have spoken movingly about their "lovely little boy" called Bailey, who died on August 26 this year, aged just 18 months old. Bailey had always been a healthy boy, but just hours after enjoying a fun day out with his mother, she found him not breathing in his bed. Despite a detailed post mortem, experts could not find out why he died.

Equally upsetting for Mr and Mrs Boxall, they still don't know whether Bailey died at home while they were trying to resuscitate him, or after he had arrived at Worthing Hospital. At an inquest last Thursday, West Sussex Coroner Roger Stone recorded Bailey's death as "unascertained", but he said he believed the death was natural.

Mrs Boxall, 34, said: "He was our lovely little boy. He never stopped smiling and never cried or had sleepless nights. It is unbelievable what has happened and we just keep saying 'why us?' and 'why our boy?' It is very upsetting as he wasn't poorly and there were no warning signs." Mr Boxall, a carpenter and joiner, said: "He was our special boy. He loved my work tools, which he called 'wow-wows', and we think he was destined to follow in my footsteps.This is the most disturbing thing we have been through. How do you get through something like this?"

Surrounded by some of their favourite photographs of their only child, Mr and Mrs Boxall invited the Worthing Herald into their home on Tuesday to share some of their treasured memories of Bailey, who was born on January 27, 2003, at Worthing Hospital.

Mrs Boxall said: "Everyone who met him was drawn to him '” even in Sainsbury's people would stop to look at him because he was such a character. You couldn't have met a nicer-natured person.

"He loved his Dad's tools. He also loved chips and chocolate and our cat Winnie, although he used to call her Innie which was quite funny seeing as though he could say his Ws.

"He was very intelligent. We once took him out and there happened to be a child psychologist there who said his speech was impeccable '” we could have conversations with him. He also loved the ball pit and camping."

Mrs Boxall said her son had always been healthy, despite a viral infection when he was 13 months old.

Mr Boxall, 29, said: "He used to love pretending he was driving the car. My Dad has got some antique tractors and Bailey loved them, too. He wasn't like a baby, he was like a little man."

On August 26, the day Bailey died, Mrs Boxall had taken him to a ball pit in Worthing, which Bailey loved. They then went to throw stones on Worthing beach '” Mrs Boxall said she would cherish forever her memories of their last day together. The inquest heard that when Bailey and Mrs Boxall got home after their day out she noticed he had a temperature and wasn't himself. But after some Calpol and dinner, Bailey's temperature had gone down and he had some milk and was put to bed.

Mrs Boxall said Bailey was fine and she spoke to him at 11pm. She went to his bedroom and he said to her "down Mummy", which meant he wanted to get up. She told him it was time to go back to sleep.

For some reason, and despite knowing he already had a bottle in his bedroom, Mrs Boxall decided at 1am she would go back into his room with a new bottle '” and it was then she realised he wasn't breathing.

She said on Tuesday: "I screamed there was something wrong. Simon rushed into the room and spent about 11 minutes trying to resuscitate Bailey on the stairs before the paramedics arrived and took over."

Bailey was taken to Worthing Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Family and friends gathered at Clapham and Patching Church on September 10 for Bailey's funeral. During the service, Mrs Boxall gave a reading about her little "Bubba". Part of the reading read: "Bailey. An angel sent from Heaven, if only for a short time. You filled every part of our lives. You were the missing part of our puzzle. You were the light in our day, the stars in our night. You were the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow."

Family and friends then went to The Elms pub in Broadwater where, from outside a marquee in the garden, they released 200 balloons.

A post mortem examination was carried out by Professor Anthony Risdon, of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Professor Risdon said at the inquest the specific cause of death could not be identified. But he said: "Nothing from the post mortem examination suggests death was anything other than natural." He said if a child of around Bailey's age dies suddenly, three-quarters of the time the cause of death will be found, but in one-quarter of deaths it isn't. Professor Risdon said he found traces of the pneumonia bacteria in Bailey's lungs, but he said this can sometimes develop after death and this is what he believed happened in this case. He said Bailey was outside the normal cot death age, but in his view it was a natural death. After the inquest, Mr and Mrs Boxall gave Professor Risdon 525 for the hospital, donated by family and friends. They hope this money will help towards making sure no other parents have to go through what they have. The couple said: "We would like to say thank you to all our family and friends for their moral support. They have been absolutely brilliant. We would also like to thank Professor Risdon, the paramedics and police."