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Nicole Bowles turned the pain of losing a beloved son into an initiative to help other bereaved parents
happened, she immediately started giving her son CPR.
She said: “My friend was still with me and we screamed for help and neighbours came running.
“An ambulance rushed Ben to hospital and he was put on life support, but the doctors broke the news to Dan and me that he had been starved of oxygen for too long and was effectively brain dead.
“We had to make the decision to stop treatment and we were with him when he died.”
Nicole says the horror of Ben’s sudden death made his loss all the more difficult to bear.
She said: “It’s not been easy getting our heads around what happened. I’ve suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed counselling.
“Losing your child in any way is unbearable but, as his death was such an unusual accident, it meant there were no charities or support groups that specialised in how Ben died or perfectly understood what we were going through.
“The procurator fiscal was wonderful and signposted us to the Scottish Cot Death Trust, who have been a great support. But Ben didn’t die of cot death.”
Nicole and Dan, who is in the armed forces, say they still struggle to answer the question: “How many children do you have?”
Nicole, who now lives in Cheshire, said: “Because of Dan’s job we have moved around a lot, and whenever you meet new people, it’s always one of the first questions they ask.
“Ben will always be a big part of this family. I to him every night’ to him do the other going to lie a three sons.
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